10 Things I Hate About You
by GallifreyGryffindorGirl
Summary: Castiel meets his soul mate in the form of the smart-mouthed young hunter Elise - a relation of Bobby Singer and friend of the Winchesters - only there's a snag to this pre-destined pairing. Elise hates angels.
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER ONE**

 ** _November, 2008_**

Elise tried not to grimace a bit as Led Zeppelin's _Stairway to Heaven_ suddenly started coming through her car stereo. She had nothing against the song itself, certainly nothing against the music, just the concept of heaven. And angels. It was a family thing.

It the back seat her dog, Jasper, a giant beast of a German Shepherded, whined as if he could tell of her sudden distaste. Elise couldn't help but glance up into the mirror to see him watching her with those doleful big brown eyes and grin just a bit. Speaking of big brown eyes…

Elise wiggled her cell out of her jeans pocket, glancing at the screen and the road to make sure nothing suddenly appeared in her way – as it wouldn't be the first time something like that had happened- she found a number simply labelled 'Winchester' and hit dial.

It was a few rings until someone answered, but Elise recognised the sleepy gruff voice of the oldest Winchester brother. "Hello?" he didn't sound happy, she smirked almost seeing in her head the way he would probably be rubbing his eyes with one hand and holding the phone in the other on some crappy motel bed somewhere.

"Dean" she said in a singsong voice.

A sleeping chuckle and then "Elise, sweetheart, I told you we can't do booty calls no more."

"Well that's damn disappointing sweetie" she couldn't help grinning "but you're out of luck, that wasn't why I was calling." Before Dean could reply, Jasper in the back of the car gave a soft 'woof'.

"At least Jasper missed me" Dean gave a put upon sigh, and them more seriously "so what is it El', you stuck on a hunt?"

"Sorta" she shrugged though he couldn't see it "I called Uncle Bobby, he seems to think I've got one of your apocalypse seals on my hands."

There was a pause, and then Dean said "does Bobby tell you fricking everything?"

"Of course" she laughed "no matter how distantly related we might be – and its bloody distant let me tell you – we're family, and we hunt. I'd think you know what that kind of bond is?"

"Yeah" he sighed "right, fine. Where are you?"

Elise gave the boys the location of where she was hunting, a small town just over the border into Canada and gave them the warning to wrap up warm. The call ended by the time she'd returned to the little cabin in which she was staying – some kind of holiday home she assumed, far fancier than the usual motels. She bet it'd take the boys a while to arrive, and from what she and Bobby could tell they had a few days before the seal could be broken, so she didn't feel at all bad for curling up in the soft bed, Jasper at her feet, and trying to catch a few winks.

Still it took her a while to fall asleep, her mind racing as it had been since this whole apocalypse now thing started. She was working as hard as Bobby or the brothers to stop it, though she was good enough to admit her motivations where somewhat selfish. She preferred the world when the angels were upstairs minding their own business, and she wanted them to go back to heaven before they could find out she existed at all. Further still, Bobby had told her about the angel's interests in Dean. Which was why it had taken so long for her to call the Winchesters. She'd spent hours mentally debating the pros and the con's. In the end it was settled with her: she could call the Winchesters… but no doubt she would soon be forced to tell them what kind of blood ran through her veins.

 **X**

The good thing about having a dog is that Elise didn't feel the need to be on alert all the time, which meant she was quite happy to work away pouring over the old books Bobby'd given her when she first started hunting looking for anything on the seals with her headphones on. She'd always liked her music loud, but knew on speakers it could upset others, so preferred the headphones. The only reason she was comfortable enough to wear headphones while hunting was Jasper – and the Winchesters had just learned why.

Elise was bobby her head along to Journey, muttering the lyrics under her breath, when she saw Jasper tense from his place in an armchair across the room. She continued to read, but her eyes flicked up now and then to the alert dog's big ears and twitching lip. Then, quicker than any cat she'd seen, Jasper was across the room bowling over whoever had just picked the lock on her cabin door. Elise pulled out her headphones, greeted with the noise of howling wind and protesting Winchesters.

She whistled and called "Jasper!" the dog immediately backed off, returning to her side and licking her outstretched hand as she rubbed his soft fur and told him he was a good dog. Dean entered the cabin a little more cautiously now in case the flying hair ball knocked him over again, brushing snow off his trousers. Sam entered behind him, grinning.

Elise got up and hugged them both "it feels like it's been donkeys years since I've seen you last" she grinned when she hugged Sam and he picked her up off her feet.

"I believe it was Saint Patrick's Day a few years ago… you got wasted" Dean grinned ruffling her hair.

"What? I can't live up to my Irish father's standards without getting wasted on a national holiday" she retorted with her own wicked grin, before moving off to find the book she'd been reading and handing it to Sam while handing Dean a beer. "Bobby thinks this is what I'm dealing with."

"A sacrifice?" Sam frowned just glossing over the information.

"On the night of the blood moon on the sixth night of this month. There are a helluva lot of six's involved with this one by the way. More than the required three" she nodded as Sam sat down on the armchair. She took up a seat on the arm of the chair while Dean sat at the table with his beer in hand.

"How'd you come by this?" Dean asked.

"I was following demon omens" she shrugged "I recognised the rising of the witnesses seal a few weeks ago which was when Bobby told me everything, so I've been trying to ice as many of hells bitches as I can."

"So do you know who they're going to sacrifice?" Sam asked, still pouring over the book.

"I have a good idea. Like is said, there are a lot of sixes in this. Bobby helped me find this dude who not only is the sixth son of a local family, but he got a bit busy a few years ago and has six kids himself, all of who reached their six birthdays this year."

Dean raised his eyebrows "busy boy…"

"Wanna know what's even weirder?"

"Shoot."

"He doesn't remember any of those nights with any of the girls. He says he remembers a night out, blackness, and next thing he knows it's a month later and all these girls are telling him he's their baby daddy."

Sam finally looked up from the book "you think demons planned this?"

"I'm saying I wouldn't be surprised if they did."

"So… you think the blood moon is gonna come along and these demons are gonna make kid stew?"

"You're quicker than you look Dean" she winked.

"Guys, the sixth night is tomorrow… we're cutting it kinda close?"

"Right" Dean clapped his hands, downed the last of his beer and said "let's go do some babysitting."

 **X**

By nightfall Elise was feeling, well, furious. Sam and Dean weren't any less angry, but she was downright spitting fire. When the hell had all those kids gone missing without her noticing? Small towns like this news usually travels fast – unless everyone is hiding from the snow and half the towns power is out from a fallen tree, then the news travels slow apparently.

Dean and Sam didn't try to calm her down, they knew what she was like when something got the one up on her during a hunt and knew she wouldn't be satisfied now until she'd killed that demon with her own bare hands. Her temper – should you ever end up on the receiving end – was fiery and they'd been burned once or twice as kids. No the boys followed the example of Jasper the dog, they kept their heads down and let her fume, occasionally retreating to a safe distance and throwing chocolate at her.

It was the early hours of the morning when they returned to the cabin, having spent all day and much of the night searching for any possible place a demon might have stashed a load of six year olds they couldn't yet kill. They'd trekked to abandoned warehouses and farms, search for local caves or mine shafts but found nothing. Elise had even tried getting Jasper to track through scent, but the poor dog got too confused and the snow cleaned up any scents left behind…

They entered the cabin, throwing down their damp coats and kicking off their shoes before they turned on the lights. Elise and Jasper where the last to enter, and when they did everyone was surprised when a growl suddenly ripped out of the dogs throat and he threw himself into the darkness. Sam turned on a light, alarmed and more than suspicious that the demon had found them.

Instead they found two familiar, and perhaps unwanted, figures. Uriel was giving the dog the same disgusted look he gave Sam and Dean, but (to Dean's disappointment) Uriel wasn't the one Jasper had tried to attack. Castiel was crouched down so he was eye level with the dog, his tan coat pooling on the floor around him, as he tilted his head and frowned a little. Jasper suddenly looked uncertain, for a dog, and backed away a few steps before he retreated completely and hid behind Elise's legs but remained glaring at the intruders.

"Yeah, we know. Seal about to be broken, we're on it" Dean huffed before the angels could speak, more than a bit annoyed they were here.

"Elise" Sam said quietly from besides her, having noticed her wide eyes as she stared at the two men "this is Castiel and Uriel, they're-"

"-angels" she finished, face pulling into a fierce scowl as she spat the word in the same way a child might say 'vegetables'.

What was funny, to Elise anyway, was that despite never having met an angel herself she did know a lot about them. And she knew she wasn't supposed to be able to see the wings of an angel, not even the silhouette unless they wished you to see them. So why was it that from the shoulder blades of the small one, the one in the overcoat with bright blue eyes, that she could see the shadows of large wings? She didn't ask, it didn't matter, but from the widening eyes of the angel in question she had the feeling that not asking would bite her later.

The other angel however, the grumpier looking one, had narrowed his eyes and if it was possible scowled even further before reaching into his jacket pocked as he spat with venom at her "Nephilim."

Sam and Dean scowled, looking between Elise and the angels, which was probably why they were fast enough to get between Uriel and Elise before the angel could stab her with his angel blade which was obviously what he set out to do as he pounced. Dean and Sam managed to grab him by the arms, holding him off as he still tried to reach her. Elise hadn't moved, just folded her arms, and by her legs Jasper growled showing white teeth. Up until this point Castiel had been staring at her. He, like Uriel, had been able to identify her as Nephilim also, it was easy for an angel to see the tiny amount of grace in her, but something else had made him stare. Now that he saw Uriel move to attack her he too got between the other angel, the brothers and the Nephilim.

"Uriel" his deep voice commanded attention, and for once Uriel actually seemed to listen frowning at his brother "we have bigger things to concern ourselves with than the nephilim."

"Castiel, you know our orders" Uriel pointed with the tip of his angel blade at Elise "these _half-breeds_ are to be exterminated."

"Our _old_ orders, Uriel" Castiel argued "have been cancelled in lieu of preventing the apocalypse."

"-yeah because it's not like I've been helping you stop that or nothing" Elise suddenly said, her voice vibrating with anger as she glared at the angels "considering your kind so graciously exterminated mine after your father brought is into existence to fight in exactly this kind of situation. No, no you still want to kill me despite me doing a better job of what I was created for than you are."

"You do not get to speak to us this way, cur" Uriel spat again.

"Whoa okay, time out" Dean got between everyone again holding his hands out and pulling an angry, but confused, frown. Sam was frowning too, looking between Uriel and Elise while simultaneously keeping an eye on the dog who looked like he might try rip Uriel's throat out if he came near Elise again. "I don't have a fudging clue what is going on here, but I sure as hell am more concerned about saving six kids from becoming some demons casserole dish so can we please concentrate on that?"

"Good idea Dean" Elise muttered after fix seconds of silence, but she was walking out of the cabin re-zipping up the jacket she'd had half off. "I'm going to go check some of the caving systems we didn't make it too. Jasper!" she and the dog vanishing back into the darkness outside, and didn't come back even when Sam called after them.

"Dean-"

"-let her go Sam" Dean sighed "she's a big girl."

"She's an abomination" Uriel growled at the boys, fixing Dean with that distasteful glare of his again as he said "do you have any idea what that girl is?"

"Yeah" Dean growled right back, faltered slightly and then said "no. no I don't have any idea what the hell a 'nephilim' is but you know what? That girls been our friends since she was in diapers and has had our backs for as long as we've been hunting so if you want to kill her, you'll have to go through me first."

Uriel's lip curled and he looked like he wanted to say something else but was stopped by Castiel's deep, but calm, voice explaining "she is a nephilim."

"-aren't nephilim supposed to be offspring of humans and angels?" Sam suddenly piped up, frowning and sure that was the lore he had read.

"In your books, yes" Uriel snorted, turning away to the window.

"but that is not so" Castiel explained further, casting a glance at Uriel as if to make sure he was still there before he looked back at the brothers "the first nephilim where created by god, angels but mostly human. They were god's secondary foot soldiers until many, many, _many_ centuries ago we were ordered to destroy them all."

"Well I guess you'll have to tell daddy you missed one, maybe that'll get him talking to you again" Dean said with mock cheerfulness and earning himself a glare once more from both Uriel and Cas.

"It is not of importance that she survives" Castiel said, though he got a disapproving look from Uriel "what is important is that you save this seal."

 **X**

Outside in the cold, Elise tried not to think about the angels and instead settled on wishing she had snow shoes. A pair of combat books where not productive to walking in the snow, though they were keeping her feet dry but she couldn't appreciate their dryness since they were numb from cold. Jasper however seemed to love the snow, diving into big piles of it whenever she threw a stick in that direction and bursting out again with a look of doggy-glee, long pink tongue flapping about comically enough that it brought a grin to her face despite her dark mood.

It was a while before her phone rang, she was well into the woods so she was quite surprised her phone got any reception and she answered it to Sam "Elise?" his voice was a little broken by static.

"Sam" she said "is this a warning to get my butt running kind of call or a where are you kind of call?"

She heard the smile in his voice "a where are you kind of call. So where are you?"

"Uh, I took a left from the cabin and just kept walking. I heard there's some kind of mine shaft or something along the river so kind of just hoping to stumble across something y'know?" she tried to keep the topic subject of her voice as she carried on walking, Jasper loping along beside. If there where demons lurking by – though she was sure Jasper would know if they were – she didn't want to advertise herself as more than a nosy dog-walker.

"Right" she heard Sam sigh "we'll follow you're prints. Uh… Cas and Uriel have decided to stick around and keep an eye on this one, just to warn you."

"Wonderful" she said a bit dryly "I'll stop by the river and wait if you haven't caught up by then okay sweetie?"

"Alright El', see you soon." He hung up.

Elise looked down, intending to make some snarky comment about nosy angels to Jasper, until she realised the dog had gone shock still a few steps behind her. His large ears where twitching, brown eyes narrowed as he looked and round and his nostrils flared scenting something she couldn't. Elise approached her dog, kneeling down at his side and gripping him tight by the studded leather collar that Dean had gotten her for Christmas many years ago (he said the dog needed to look a bit more badass if he was a hunter) and she eyed the dark trees like something might jump out and grab her.

Which was why she didn't jump when a man suddenly came out from one of the trees. He didn't look like a hiker, and he certainly wasn't dressed for the snow in jeans and a light shirt. Not even so much as a hat on his head. In Elise's opinion he screamed 'demon' so loudly he should have just worn a sandwich board informing the world of the fact. It was a good job she had a hold of Jasper's collar because the second the demon revealed itself the dog tried to lunge, barking.

Elise put on her best professional smile, a bit difficult when you're holding 80 pounds of muscled canine struggling to get out of your grip, and said to the demon with a polite tone "I'm sorry about him, this is why I only walk him at night. Tends to get a bit overprotective. Kinda reminds me of my ex."

"Some might say that's a good thing" the demon said after pausing to consider her for a second, deeming her no possible threat, and walking right up to her. He stared at Jasper, and for the second time that night the dog quietened down and retreated behind Elise's legs. She could still feel the shudder of a growl vibrating through his chest against her legs however, and that was a comfort. "There" said the demon "all he needed was to know whose boss."

"Ah well, not many people can get my alpha doggy to back down. You must be quite a guy" Elise fluttered her eyelashes a bit and tried not to vomit into her mouth.

The demon paused about an arm's length from her "this isn't really a hiking trail" he said.

"I know. I just kind of…walked" she shrugged, then with a kind of sly smile said "you see I'm looking for some kids that went missing earlier today, and at first I wasn't sure I was going in the right direction, but low and behold you came along so I guess I'm getting close, am I right?"

The demon looked quite surprised for all of a second before his expressions came over in a fierce look and he tried to lunge for her. Elise hopped backwards to dodge, and Jasper came out of nowhere latching his teeth around the demon's ankle. Of course a dog bite does not really effect a demon, but in her years hunting Elise had found it to be a near excellent distraction. She reached into her boot and pulled out a wicked black blade holding it in a ready position as the demon kicked out finally managing to dislodge Jasper who backed up a few paces out of reach before the demon could do him any serious harm. Instead the furious demon, bleeding from the leg, turned its attention back to Elise and laughed at the blade in her hand. "Stupid bitch, a little pig-knife isn't going to hurt me-"he was cut off by Elise slashing with the knife, cutting the arm he'd put up in defence. The wound spoked and crackled with light, stunning the demon for a second.

"This knife's kind of been in the family for generations" she muttered, keeping her gaze on the demon and waiting for its attack "it works on demons just fine."

The demon's face pulled into a snarl and he lunged, trying to grab her while simultaneously avoid her knife. Behind her Jasper barked loudly. After a few seconds the demon managed to get a hold of her wrist, the one holding the knife, and with a malicious look squeezed trying to make her drop the blade. Elise felt her bones rub together and grimaced but kept her grip firm on the knife.

Then, the demons grip slackened and his features suddenly exploded in light and smoke. Elise was confused, until the body of the demon fell into the snow at her feet. She had expected Sam or even Dean. She did not expect the angel. He put his blade away eyeing her with his baby blues, and Elise found herself glancing up to the shadowy wings on his back that twitched.

"I could have taken care of that" she growled irritably looking away from the angel, crouching in the snow to check over Jasper and make sure he wasn't injured. The dog did his best to try lick her face, which made Elise want to smile despite trying to glower at the angel. "I didn't need your help."

"I am sure you are a capable hunter" he said, and Elise was surprised by the sincerity in his voice and expression "but in this instance it looked like assistance was required."

Elise didn't grace that with a reply as she carried on walking, Jasper keeping close to her legs, instead she looked around and asked "where's your grumpy partner?"

"Around" he replied ambiguously with a slight shrug, but it was enough to make Elise cast a glance at the shadows of the trees around her despite knowing angels could choose to be seen by her mortal eyes or not.

After a few moments, Elise turned on the angel again "why the hell are you following me?"

"I wished to speak with you… Elise?"

"About what?" she shoved her hands into her pockets and irritably looked around at anything but the angel.

He tilted his head watching her for a moment before he said "I do not understand many human interactions or the complexity of their emotions but I am confident that I have detected a certain animosity you hold for me?"

Elise glanced at him briefly "well you're not wrong…" she said, slightly amused, then with a sigh and only because she had heard this angel was something for a 'friend' to Dean she asked "what's your name angel?"

"Castiel."

"Alright Castiel, I'll tell you a little secret" she looked at him with just a glance and saw his curiosity "I hate angels- but it's nothing personal against you. I don't like to talk about it though."

The angel opened his mouth to say something, she saw that in the corner of her eye, but suddenly he paused. Elise paused too, tilting her head as she heard something that a human would not. It wasn't often that it happened – it would probably give her a headache if it was often – but Elise could pick up prayers like any angel could, maybe better since they seemed to be able to identify emotions as well as a carrot could.

" _Please help us, god please, please, please_ " it was a child's prayer, it echoed around Elise's head like a ping pong ball in an otherwise empty room and she found herself standing and going off the path to follow it " _please, it's dark and cold and I'm scared! I'll be good for mom-"_

Elise had stopped walking when she heard the prayer and glanced to her side knowing that Castiel would have heard the prayer too. Which was why she was not shocked that he was gone, the only evidence he had been there was the foot prints in the snow that would likely vanish soon as flakes began to fall from the sky once more. Elise snorted and thought good riddance, before she began to follow the prayer.

Elise followed the prayed for maybe ten minutes, ignoring the chills in her limbs and the way her ankles twisted as she slipped on patches of ice and snow. Jasper obediently followed. Neither of them picked up on any demons, nor angels for that matter, not even as she came to the small entrance of what was probably the mine she'd heard about.

"Hello?" she called out, testing. She didn't even care if demons heard her. Let them come, she had a bit of steam to blow off anyway.

"Hello?" she heard the hopeful sound of children's voices echoing inside the mine "help us, please, oh god!"

"Hang on a second" Elise called back cupping a hand to her mouth. She turned to Jasper, knowing he'd likely be too big to slip into what was left of the mine's entrance, and she told him to stay. It took three tries – he kept trying to follow – but eventually he stayed outside. Elise, satisfied, got out her phone flicking on the torch so she could see better.

It took a bit of walking, in some places slipping, before she found the children. They were locked up on individual cages probably meant for dogs of Jasper's size. They weren't dressed for the cold, and huddled in little balls to try and keep warm as their breaths came out in little clouds. Still when they saw her, some shrank back in fear while others came forwards with hope. Elise couldn't help but try to reassure them as she put down her phone/torch and smiled getting her lock picking tools out of pocket, she asked "which one of you prayed for a miracle?"

One of the kids, a boy in a shirt with a dinosaur on it, crawled forwards eying her doubtfully and asked "are you an angel?"

"Nah" she said, getting to work on the first lock "I'm better."

The lock clicked open and the kid pushed the door open looking relived, but as he did there was noise at the mouth of the shaft. Elise's first dreaded thought was that more demons had returned – she didn't know exactly how many where there after all – but a few seconds later she realised that wasn't what she should have been worried about. The tiny bit of natural light coming out from the mouth of the cave vanished with a loud noise, and she realised she had just been sealed into the mine with the kids. The kids began to panic again, yelling all sorts of things until Elise stood up (the second lock now in her hand as a girl climbed out of another cage) and with all the authority she could muster yelled "quiet!"

She was actually surprised when they fell silent, all looking up at her with doleful eyes. "Look, I've got friends who were following me out here. They're looking for you too. They're gonna find us, okay?" she gave them her best smile. One by one the six kids nodded, though only a few of them looked reassured. Elise couldn't blame them as she looked at the empty signal bars on her phone screen… she felt a bit doubtful too.

 **X**

When Sam and Dean came across the dead man in the wood, they lost Elise's tracks in the freshly falling snow. If it hadn't been for an insane amount of barking, they'd never have known which direction to head in. "Jasper!" Dean bellowed into the woods, probably waking every living creature from hibernation. Still it did the trick, they heard the dog before they saw him. He didn't linger however, the dog ran back the way he came pausing now and then to make sure they were following. When they came to a sealed mine entrance, they had an idea what had separated Elise and her dog.

"Knock, knock, Elise – you in there?" Dean yelled, tapping on the boulders.

"You better not be a Jehovah's witness" Elise's voice called back, muffled by the rocks "hey Dean, you think you could move some of these rocks?"

"Sure princess" Dean smiled, nodding for Sam to help him.

"I thought Uriel and Cas where supposed to be helping us out?" Sam asked as they struggled together to life a particularly large boulder.

"Angels, dicks" Dean grunted.

"Language!" Elise's voice was sharp "there's kids in here."

"You found them?"

"No Sam, I found a different bunch of missing kids"

"No need to get testy."

It took some work but eventually the boys had cleared enough of the rocks for the kids, and then Elise, to fit through. It was then some work helping the kids back through the snow, having to rely not only on their directions to the nearest safe place but having to carry the kids that hadn't been wearing shoes when the demons grabbed them. Sam, being the tallest, had one kid on his back and another in his arms. Dean carried another in his arms (Elise thought it was kind of adorable how the little girl was telling Dean he was like a prince in a fairy tale, though Dean kept trying to macho up the story whenever he caught Sam's eye he was clearly enjoying the praise) and Elise was piggybacking another kid. The two kids who were walking, Elise was touched to see, kept their hands on Jasper's fury back as he walked in between them calmly. They returned the kids to the local police station, Elise filled out some bullshit report that she'd been taking her dog out to go do his business when he ran off and found the kids, and didn't linger for any kind of thanks or congratulations. They did however receive a number of high fives off the kids, and Dean got a peck on the cheek from the girl who thought he was a prince.

On the way back to the cabin, Elise stuck her hands in her pockets and said into the silence "so you guys aren't mad that I'm…" she trailed off looking at the floor.

"A nephilim?" Sam frowned from beside her, pause and then said in a kind of lazy tone "nah"

"Nah?" she looked up.

"Well we always knew you weren't quite human" Dean said suddenly with a shrug, kicking a bit of dirty snow "that's never really been a problem since we've known you since Sammy's toddler days."

"You're…serious?"

"Yeah" Sam threw an arm over her shoulders "you're like family, idiot, did you really think this'd be a problem?"

"Well…"

Dean suddenly ruffled her hair, a kind of sad grin on his face as he said "you really are an idiot."

"Yeah well you're a dingus" Elise fired back climbing the cabin stairs.

"Cow" he fired back with a smirk, unlocking the cabin door.

This time Dean didn't seem shocked to see Uriel and Castiel in the room. Sam and Elise paused, but didn't linger as they kicked off their shoes a dampened the wood floor with snow. Elise kept a close eye on Jasper, but was surprised when her dog walked right up to the angel whose wing shadow she could still see – Castiel, right? – pressing his wet nose into the angel's hand asking to be pet. The angel actually looked quite startled, before rubbing the dog's ears a few times.

"Traitor" Elise muttered, though she didn't mean it. It wasn't her dogs fault she had a grudge after all.

"You did exceptionally well" Castiel praised, but he was looking only at Elise and not the boys.

Uriel, also looking at her, couldn't seem to help himself from adding "for a mongrel."

Elise felt her blood boil once more, but rather than saying anything in anger she decided to pull off her best smile yet and she winked at the cantankerous angel "oh Uriel, you whisper such sweet nothings in my ears don't you?"

He looked taken aback, and Castiel furrowed his brow in annoyance, while Dean smirked at Elise before he said to the two angels "she was a hell of a lot more useful than either of you dicks, what did you two do eh?"

Castiel turned his head to Dean fixing him with that stare as he said "there were no demons to stop you retrieving the children. Did you not wonder why that was Dean?"

The three hunters paused, though Elise moved to sit by the fire and warm her feet. She could barely feel her toes at all. She was not blind enough to not notice the way Castiel watched her like a hawk. What did he think she was gonna do? Jump up and bite him? She snorted at that idea, which made everyone look at her, so she tried to cover it with a cough. "The only reason I have not killed you yet nephilim is because Castiel has argued that you will be useful" Uriel decided to break the silence.

Elise was, she admitted, a bit surprised by that but just shrugged and said "whatever works for you, dick-wings, have a nice day now."

Elise didn't turn to the see the angels again, so she didn't know if they were annoyed when they left but it gave her a warm fuzzy feeling to assume they were. She heard a flutter of wings however, announcing their exit, and for just a second felt her heart leap of its own accord and Elise was left frowning in the armchair.

Dean threw himself into the armchair opposite her "I've never seen you be so aggressive with someone you just met, what's the story?" he asked almost immediately.

Elise just shrugged, looking at the warm fire as her toes began to thaw and replied simply "I hate angels."


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

 ** _May, 2009_**

Elise didn't know who was closer to ripping their hair out – her or Bobby. One second they were talking to Dean, well okay Bobby was talking to Dean while Elise was giving him her best disapproving look not sure she could do more than that without chucking something at the oldest Winchester, about his behaviour towards Sam. Now the little brother was off with the demon Ruby doing god only knows what and the last thing he heard from his brother was rejection…

And the next thing, Dean was gone. Before Bobby could do much more than look around Elise and growled and said the single word "angels…"

To her it was obvious, she had felt the presence of an angel for just a split second and then Dean was gone. Funnily though it wasn't the presence of the angel she was used to feeling. Since the boys had asked her to travel with them for a bit she had become grudgingly accustomed to the presence of Castiel. Truth be told she was a little curious of the angel and it wasn't just because she was permanently able to see the shadow of his wings, something she'd found out by broaching it in conversation with Sam and Dean.

No she was a bit curious about the angel because he seemed intent to seek out her company despite her negative attitude to him. The boys had noticed too, if something confused the angel (and it didn't take much from what Elise saw) it was her he came to for an explanation. Elise would answer him of course – something that made Dean tease her for being a big softie – though usually she'd make the explanation brief, impersonal and then ask why the hell he'd come to her and not one of the brothers. Castiel however would just blink at her, something of a smirk on his lips, and disappear. It was baffling, but as Dean reminded her at least the angel's didn't keep visiting her about the seals or threatening to off his brother.

But the angel who'd taken Dean wasn't Castiel. She was sure of that, and it was the only thing she knew for sure as she sat in Bobby's basement doing her best to work out something, anything, to locate either Winchester brother. Unfortunately no one seemed to be answering their goddamned phone!

Elise had just dialled Sam – it rang twice then went to voice mail, which meant he saw her number and declined the call – before she threw her phone across the room in frustration watching as it clattered against the wall and the plastic backing fell off. Jasper the dog looked rather startled by this, before he threw Elise a look of doggy-irritation and slunk off up the stairs. No doubt he was going to curl up with Bobby.

She sighed and turned back to the so far useless book in front of her. It was a few more moments before she felt it. Elise had been swinging on her chair trying to add some adrenaline to her system and stop herself falling asleep, when she stiffened. Her chair fell back onto all four legs and she looked around suspiciously to the seemingly empty basement "I know you're in here so you may as well drop the invisibility act."

It took a second, but Castiel appeared in the shadows under the stairs. He wasn't looking at her, just frowning at the floor. Elise stood, walking halfway towards the angel until she could once more see the shadow of his wings even in the darkness under the stairs and she said "one of your buddies flew off with Dean. Sam's gone off with Ruby. You sure as shit better be here to help."

"Dean is safe" he told her, still not looking at her.

"You know where he is?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"I can't tell you."

She threw him an irritated look "what about Sam? Lilith?"

"Lilith will break the final seal tonight."

"Well that's wonderful news, hell on earth as of tomorrow? Well I always did want to go someplace hot…" she laughed sarcastically "is anyone trying to stop this?"

He shuffled a little, and Elsie swore she heard the sound of feathers as he moved, before very softly he said "you are…"

She snorted "yeah, holding down a one woman fort here. What the hell are you doing here Castiel if you're not going to tell me where the boys are?"

Now he looked up, fixing her with that azure gaze he said "I came to see you."

Elise blinked a little surprised, before she frowned at the angel once again and said with a voice dripping in sarcasm "well that's just so freaking sweet of you, I feel fuzzy all over. Why the hell would you even want to come see me Castiel, I'm not exactly you're biggest fan."

He tilted his head, that slight smirk back on his lips but he didn't answer.

Elise scowled at his lack of an answer and decided after that to ignore him. Instead she walked across the room and picked up her broken phone. She cut her hand on an exposed shard of metal and hissed a little as her fingers began to bleed, but continued to gather up the pieced of now useless phone. She was so intent on ignoring Castiel that he actually surprised her when she turned and found him standing far closer to her, the shadow on his wings raised slightly. "You're hurt?" he asked with a slight frown reaching out to touch her.

Elise back up so she was well out of reach. "Put you're wings down, it's not like I'm under attack" she growled irritably putting the broken shards of her phone on the counter top.

"So you _can_ see my wings?" he murmured almost too quietly for her to hear, sounding stunned "I was suspicious…"

"Yeah…" Elise shifted a little "so?"

The angel's shadowy wings shuffled a little like an uncomfortable bird as he tilted his head and said "I can see your wings too… the shadow of them at least…"

Elise frowned "I don't have wings."

"You will" he assured her "but I was startled at first to see the shadow of them now… until it was explained of course."

"Explain, then" she ordered him, starting to get a little agitated.

He tilted his head and then said, as if it was the most simple thing in the world "you are my soul mate."

For a second Elise wondered if the angel had found a sense of humour, she laughed, but hesitated when he didn't join her laughter. "You… you are kidding, right?" she asked "I mean you and me… soul mates don't even exist… its bonkers."

The angel however just shrugged "I am not 'kidding', though at first I did question why…"

"We are _not_ soul mates" she folded her arms adamantly.

Castiel didn't answer, he was tilting his head listening to something she couldn't hear. "I must go" he said suddenly, vanishing with a flutter of feathers.

Elise was left standing in the basement arms still folded as she struggled to actually comprehend what the hell it was the angel had just told her. What did he mean she would have wings? Hell, she should probably be more concerned about the soul mate thing…

Jasper came back down to the basement, sitting in front of her with his pink tongue rolling out of his mouth.

"I am _not_ his soul mate" she growled to the dog. Jasper just tilted his head, reminding her way too much of the angel himself.

 **X**

It occurred to Elise shortly after she woke up from a four hour nap she hadn't actually intended to have, that there was one person on their god forsaken planet that would likely know where she could find Sam and Dean. And if he wouldn't answer she could probably bully it out of him. Though, she'd feel really bad about it. She really liked Chuck.

She had been driving for a fair few hours now, muttering along with Metallica, feeling just a little lonely in the car since she had left Jasper back at Bobby's. She was on the highway, so the ride was smooth at the very least, and the constant noise around her stopped her falling asleep.

"I find myself requiring your advice-"a deep voice suddenly said from her passenger seat.

"Holy-"Elise swore as she swerved from shock. The only thing that stopped her crashing was a pale hand reached out and tugging the steering wheel so she stayed in the right lane. Even then it didn't stop the ass behind her honking his horn and giving her the finger. "Don't bloody well do that!" she growled at Castiel, trying to calm her racing heart.

"I startled you. Apologise." He didn't sound sorry in her opinion… actually, he sounded rather troubled and Elise glanced at him.

"What's wrong?"

"Dean hit me" he said.

"That doesn't surprise me" she snorted "is this why you're here, because Dean hit you?"

"No" he looked at her now "because you are the only one of which I can speak the truth without punishment, and the only one I trust to give me advice about what Dean has said to me…"

"Me?" she pulled a face "why me?"

"Because you are my soul mate" he said it so simply again.

Elise felt her grip on the steering wheel get tight and she tried to calm herself as she replied "I am not your soul mate Castiel. I hate angels."

"You said it was not a personal hatred."

"It's not" she hesitated, glancing at him "but it's not something I will put aside just because you claim we're soul mates. What did Dean say to you?"

Castiel hesitated, but answered "he wishes for me to disobey and help him prevent Sam from starting the apocalypse-"

"-He's going to what?" Elise cut him off sharply, then flashed back to what she had read in Bobby's books earlier the information that had been muddled to her suddenly making sense as she said "holy crap, Sam doesn't know that… how could you let him do this?"

"It is dest-"

"-I swear to all things holy if you say destiny I will stab you with your own angel blade" she growled, glancing at him "as much as I hate to admit it Castiel I've been watching you the last few months, and you're not quite as dickish as the rest. You like this planet, you like these humans, and you'd let them all burn just because your boss tells you its destiny?"

"You are right" he said, his tone getting harder "I do like all my father has created here, but looking around I can see nothing but pain and anger… in paradise the world will be at peace."

"Yeah, that's what you see?" Elise growled, seeing a turn off sign and throwing her car down the road without indicating (getting honked at again). The road got bumpy but she didn't let it bother her much. As they drove to their destination she asked "exactly how many will die achieving this paradise Castiel?"

He didn't get chance to reply, Elise slammed on the breaks and the car stopped abruptly sending her nearly face first into the wheel. Somehow the abrupt stop didn't effect Castiel but she didn't comment on that. She got out of the car, heading to the fence they had stopped beside and leaning over it. In a second she became aware of the angel standing beside her, and she looked at him "Castiel, standing right here do you know what I can see? I see happy families picnicking by a lake. I see a man teaching his sons to fish just over there. I see kids swimming and laughing. I see people being ordinary, normal, naive, blind people who don't have a clue the apocalypse is coming. These are the kinds of people we're fighting for, and you want to let them burn?"

Castiel however, countered her argument by pointing to the man teaching his kids to fish and said "that man has just lost his wife and is grieving" he pointed to a woman reading alone on the shore "she has no family, no friends, just her job and a cat. She is sad, and hollow." He was going too continued, but Elise stopped him.

"Yeah, Castiel, those are all horrible things that I'm sure make those people feel horrible too. But you know what?"

He tilted his head to look at her.

"They'll get over it" she shrugged "human nature."

He turned fully to her now, his overcoat ruffling slightly in the breeze and asked "will you get over it? I sense pain in you Elise, and fear, and you claim that you hate me."

Elise smirked "nice try angel, but it'd take more than that for me to just 'get over it'. Anyway, it doesn't matter about me. What matters is that you understand why Dean, Sam, Bobby and I fight for normal people. But hey, if this doesn't convince you why don't you just take a zap around the world? Because I promise you'll find some good no matter what is happening or where you are. Now, I got someone I have to go and see."

"Where _are_ you going?" he said it in a hard voice, and with interest.

Elise smirked "you won't help me find the boys, so I'm going to find someone who will" she got into her cat, and when she looked up Castiel was gone.

 **X**

Elise made it to the home of Chuck the prophet a few hours after dark. Apparently he'd had a vision that she would come, because he was standing on the porch before she'd even gotten up his steps. "Elsie" he said, still looking a bit uncomfortable in her presence (she had a feeling he thought she was begrudging that he had thought her a 'bad plot device' and not included her in his books) "you can't be here."

"What?" she frowned, coming into the house when he moved out of her way "why?"

Chuck began to whisper "if… you know, that arch… yeah, if he know you're here he'll kill you…"

"You saw that in a vision?" she lowered her voice too, though if the archangel watching over Chuck was actually paying attention she doubted it would do much good to lower their voices.

"Well, yes and no…" he stuttered a bit and shrugged "I saw it in a vision, I don't know when it will happen, but you will be killed by an archangel."

Elise tried not to have a reaction so she threw Chuck her best grin and tucked her thumbs into the pockets of her jeans and said "well… it's kind of nice to know I won't get killed by anything else between now and then. C'mon Chuck, you've got to know why I'm here?"

He hesitated "yes, but I don't know where they are yet Elise… I haven't had that vision."

"Well you're gonna have it soon" she guessed, grabbing him by the collar of his dressing gown and pulling him into the kitchen to sit him at the table. Chuck didn't argue, but he did curl his shoulders a bit like a frightened squirrel. Elise, rolled her eyes and grinned as she grabbed a few glasses and sat opposite him "unclench Chuck, I'm not going to hurt you." She poured them both a shot of Chuck's whisky and pushed one glass towards him.

"S-sorry" he muttered, and she watched with an impressed raise of her eyebrows as he threw back the entire shot in a single swallow.

"Impressive" she said, following his example "then again, you know the apocalypse is about to start and it makes drinking a bit easier eh?"

"Something like that" he agreed, managing a smile.

Elise sat with Chuck until eleven at night before she began to get fidgety. It was getting close to the final hour, and from what Castiel had told her it was definably tonight that the final seal would go down. Still Chuck hadn't had his final vision, and he was starting to get a bit drunk. Well, on the upside if he was drunk he wasn't acting like a mouse, while she was a cat.

Then, with half an hour to midnight, he suddenly fell face first onto the table. At first Elise was convinced he'd drank himself unconscious and got up to try and wake him, until she saw him twitching, muttering, and grimacing in pain. Vision. She waited patiently, though she did make a mental note to someday ask why it hurt for a prophet to have a vision…

When Chuck finally sat up again, she was ready with a glass of water. He stood at the sink to drink it, looking a bit pale and like he might be sick, and she waited. When Chuck turned back around, he frowned.

"Y-you're not supposed to be here" he said.

Elise frowned, and her heart nearly jumped out of her chest when she heard Castiel behind her say "yeah well… we're kind of making this up as we go along."

Elise turned around and saw Dean and Cas – whose sleeve was rolled up exposing his bleeding arm – and she couldn't help but hug Dean, just briefly, and he gave her a smirk and hugged her back.

"Where's Sam, Chuck?" Dean asked, his voice brooking a no-nonsense kind of tone.

For once, Chuck didn't stutter as he answered almost immediately "St. Mary's Convent."

The lights of the house flickered suddenly, a blinding white light appearing outside the windows and for one wild second Elise thought they were being abducted. That was until she felt the static of her arms, and the humming in her head.

"It's the archangel!" Castiel said, turning to Elise and Dean "I'll hold him off, I'll hold them all off, just stop Sam!"

The angel tried to tap her head at the same time as Deans, and in a split second decision Elise dodged his hand and didn't get transported away when Dean did. Castiel scowled at her, for the first time looking truly mad at her, to which Elise shrugged bending down to remove the long black blade from her boot. "I'll be more use here Castiel" she told him, having to yell slightly over the sound of the archangel "let Dean stop Sam. I've been itching to kick some angelic assholes anyway!"

"You are not strong enough Elise!" he called back, both of them ignoring Chuck as he came to stand beside them both.

"Doesn't matter, Chuck says I'm gonna get iced by an archangel anyway. May as well do it for my family!" she yelled, nodding over Castiel's shoulder as the first angel appeared. Her split second thought was 'do they all wear suits' before the angel had barrelled into Castiel like a freight train. Elise had just enough time to shove Chuck out of the way. By the time the second and third angel appeared, Castiel had already dispatched of the first.

Elise hated to admit it but… Castiel was a good fighting partner. In fact, she noticed as together they killed another angel (though for every one they killed, two more appeared, it was like that story about the hydra) that she had never fought with someone so seamlessly, not even the Winchesters or even Bobby, because fighting with Castiel was more like dancing. When she went on the defensive, he was on the offence, and vice versa… they were getting badly beaten however, even Elise (who liked to stay optimistic during these kinds of situations) could see that. She thought that getting Chuck (currently hiding under the coffee table) out of the danger zone might considerably help so she grabbed him by the arm and hauled him from under the able like he weight no more than a china doll. Without even speaking, Castiel had her back.

Five minutes later, as she was shoving Chuck out of the main rooms, she understood why. There was a pause in everything – the noise, the fighting. The silence before the storm – in which Castiel grabbed her arm and turned her around. He looked deep into her eyes, not half as blue as his own, and then he kissed her, lightly, barely long enough for her to actually register the movement. He pulled back just slightly enough to nuzzle his nose against her own in a sort of Eskimo kiss before he told her with force "hide, _now_ " and pushed her out of the room with enough strength that she stumbled over some fallen books.

Elise didn't have time to dwell on what had just happened, she saw one of the angels – this one actually shorter than even her with was deceiving – come out of the kitchen into the hallway. She shoved Chuck behind her, leaping at the angel. She managed to get in a good hit, before the angel picked up a heavy paperweight and knocked it against the side of her head. Elise fell to the floor, struggling a second to keep awake, before she fell unconscious on the floor.

When she came too, it was because Chuck had thrown a glass of cold water on her face. Elise sat up gasping from the cold and shock and nearly head butted the prophet. "Chuck?" she frowned. Last thing she remembered was fighting… it was too quiet.

"O-oh thank god…" Chuck fell to the floor beside her and slumped his shoulder "for a second I thought…"

She threw him a look "didn't you check my pulse before drenching me?"

"Uh…no."

Another irritated look "this is why you don't get to come on more adventures" she muttered rolling her eyes and trying to stand, holding her pounding head "where's all the angels?"

"They-uh-they vanished…"

"Huh… I guess you're vision about me getting offed by an archangel was wrong… where's Castiel?"

Chuck looked a little green as he said "all over… he… he, the archangel, he… blew him up."

"Blew him up?" she repeated a little hollowly, feeling a bit sick herself when she looked around Chuck's home and realised it was indeed covered with bloody fleshy spots… Chuck's dry cleaning bill was going to be amazing. She grimaced as she realised there was a fair bit of what was quite possible Castiel's blood on her coat, and felt even more nauseated when she remembered he had kissed her shortly before she was knocked out… "How long was I out?" she asked Chuck, though from the daylight outside she'd say a good few hours or so, it was at least lunch time.

Chuck was about to reply when a creak came from his porch. He looked at Elise, fear on his face, and she grabbed her knife from the floor where it had fallen. Chuck grabbed a toilet plunger and followed her example hiding behind a wall. Ten minutes later he'd jumped out and smacked Sam Winchester over the head. A minute after that, while Dean was questioning Chuck on what the hell had happened, Elise had jumped up and threw her arms around Sam's neck relived to see he was alive.

She then punched him very hard on the arm and growled "that's for not answering your phone you-you dumbass!"

She then turned her attentions to Dean, who greeted her hug softly. He did think it was appropriate however to say "you look like shit."

"Good, you can nurse me back to health since I look like shit from protecting you two fuckwits" she growled it, but lovingly, making both Sam and Dean chuckle just a bit.

 **X**

Elise sat in the hospital waiting room, one of her legs jumping nervously as she fiddled with her own thumbs. She sighed and rubbed her face leaning back in the chair. It was late, and no one had been by to tell her of Bobby's condition in a few hours. At least she had the waiting room to herself.

She couldn't help but think however that perhaps she should have gone with the boys to find Michaels sword… they'd been understanding when she chose to stay with Bobby, even knowing she'd have a lot of awkward questions to answer (she'd ended up telling police that he was her uncle, which wasn't quite a total lie, and had been on the way home when he was mugged and stabbed). Bobby would've understood if she'd left… but, she couldn't bring herself to do it.

"Elise?"

She didn't jump. She was too tired. Instead she dragged her hand back down her face and cast a look to the left, seeing the concerned look of a certain blue eyed angel. "I thought you were dead?"

"I was."

"You don't look very dead."

"God" he answered simply.

That made Elise sit up a bit further in her seat and frown at him "god brought you back?"

"I believe so, yes" he nodded "Elise what you did was very foolish. You are not human, but you are not an angel yet either and you could have been seriously injured."

"So you weren't worried about me dying, that's refreshing" she muttered, then turned to him sharply "wait what do you mean not an angel _yet_?"

He frowned "I thought you knew nephilim can become angels after their death?"

"Castiel, does this look like the expression of someone who knew that?" she pointed at her face.

He sighed "no, no it does not. I apologise, I should have made sure you where well-informed of your situation."

Elise ignored that, leaning back in her chair and staring up at the flickering fluorescent lights above her. She'd become an angel? She was going to become the thing she hated most? That was just… she began to laugh, a kind of the-world-is-too-crazy laugh that would have her admitted to the insanity ward if anyone else heard it. As it was, Castiel was frowning like he was confused by her laugher… on the other hand what didn't confuse him?

"Alright fine, I'm going to become the thing I hate most. That's… that's hunky-dory. Moving on, what the hell are you doing _here_? You get revived and come here of all places?"

"I am cut off from heaven" he turned in his seat so he wasn't facing her and slouched a little bit. It was funny, that simple action actually made him seem more human. He sounded angry, but his body language was weary…

"So you came here?"

"No, I saved Dean and Sam from Zachariah first. Then I was cut off from heaven. I was considering my options when I sensed your distress and came here."

"Sensed my- oh, you're not going to talk about that soul mate crap again are you?"

"It is the truth Elise" his voice was quieter this time.

"I'm not your soul mate Castiel" she replied just as quietly, though for some reason her mind was thinking back to the very chaste kiss he'd given her when they were fighting and the kind of adorable nose rub… "I'm _not_ " she said it more adamantly this time, but then cast him a glance and said "I'll admit you're a pretty good fighting partner though."

He glanced at her, meeting her eyes and one side of his mouth lifted in a slight crooked smile "you are a very skilled fighter yourself Elise. Though, if the prophet has foreseen your death at the hands of an archangel I would prefer you to stay away from those battles."

"No dice" she smirked a little. From the expression on his face he hadn't expected her to agree. "Are Sam and Dean okay?"

"Physically I have seen to it that they are okay-"he said, turning to get again suddenly as he continued "-which reminds me."

He pressed a hand to her chest suddenly, just above her breasts and Elise gasped at the sudden painful warmth that spread across her ribs. He pulled away again and explained "now you are hidden from all angels… aside from myself."

"You're lucky I don't have the energy to hit you" she glowered at him, rubbing her chest.

"Yes I consider myself to be quite lucky indeed" he nodded, though she had a feeling he only said that to humour her.

"Miss Smith?" the nurse came in suddenly, saying Elise alias name (she had been too tired to get creative with it) and Elise stood. "Your uncle is out of surgery, and the Doctor is waiting to speak with you" the nurse smiled comfortingly.

Elise glanced back behind her, but Castiel had already vanished. She turned back to the nurse and followed her to Bobby's room, expression grim and hoping the boys would come back soon…


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

 ** _Three days later_**

Light came in slightly through the battered motel blinds falling on the brown and red décor that decorated it. Outside the sound of people and cars rushed by, but that didn't disturb Elise as she lay on her front in the bed peacefully asleep for the first time in days.

On the floor however Jasper the German shepherd slept until he heard something. His ears and nose twitched and he lifted his head giving a softy 'woof' that had Elise awake immediately. Only her eyes opened however, the rest of her body stiffening under the sheet. What she saw however, once she blinked a few times to get rid of the blurriness, was a familiar winged silhouette that obliged her dog's persistent begging for a scratch behind the ears.

Elise moved the sheet further around herself, throwing a pillow her head and she said "Jasper you are a lousy guard dog. Castiel, you need to learn to bloody well knock."

"It is daytime" the angel said simply, though just from his voice she knew he was tilting his head "why are you sleeping?"

"Because some of us hadn't been to sleep in days" she growled "now can you bugger off? Go bother Dean or something."

"I have already seen Dean this morning. It is your help I wish to acquire."

" _Why_?" she looked up incredulously finally removing the pillow from over her head and propping herself up on her elbows to glare at Castiel.

"I believe you will be useful."

"Useful for what? You know Sam and Dean are pretty useful too… though, they do seem to come in a set…"

"I am going to find god."

She blinked at him, trying to gauge how serious he was about this. From his set expression, very. "Why the hell do you think I would be useful finding god? I don't even care about the bugger enough to want to find him! I mean it would be nice if he could come back and put a leash on his kids but…"

"That is why I wish to find him. He is the only one strong enough to stop Lucifer and the apocalypse."

Okay, she had to admit, that made quite a bit of sense… still, she couldn't help but whine a little as she sat up still holding the sheet to her body with one arm as she rubbed her eyes with the other "can't we just try kill the devil?"

"No, Dean's plan will not work."

"Right" Elise sighed "and you really want me to work with you on this? Not Dean?"

"Dean's talents will be useful elsewhere."

Elise chewed her lip, ran a hand through her dark hair and exhaled heavily "let me go get dressed, I'm not saying I'll help you, but I'll hear you out…" she stood, still holding the sheet to her body as she moved to the little bathroom across the room.

"E-Elise?" Castiel's voice hitched a little as she moved across the room.

Her shoulders dropped and she looked over her shoulder "what?"

"A-ah… you appear to, um…" the angel struggled to speak, and Elise had to look over her shoulder to see he hadn't moved, but his face had become pink with a slight blush as he stared at her with wide eyes. He caught her eye and looked away, appearing even more embarrassed. "You appear to be nude…"

Elise frowned and looked down but he body was firmly wrapped in the bed sheet, oh, aside from a small slit exposing her left side. Even then, it was obvious she had at least her underwear on. "I'm not nude" she protested "I'm wearing a sheet, and my underwear. You're lucky, if it was any warmer I'd not be wearing anything and then we'd be in an awkward situation."

With that fact she left the angel and made it to the bathroom where she closed the door on him and for just a second frowned at herself because suddenly the idea of the angel actually finding her naked had been appealing. She shook that thought from her head, it was probably nothing more than her libido. It wasn't like she'd had much chance to get laid, and if she was honest lately she scared most guys away with her suddenly aggressive attitude to anyone who tried to pick her up.

She got dressed in the first clean clothes she pulled from her bag, which happened to be well-worn blue jeans and a white blouse. She ran a brush through her hair and braided it before returning to the main room. Castiel's cheeks no longer had a blush on them, and he was crouched on the floor rubbing Jasper's belly as the dogs tail thumped loudly on the floor. She couldn't help but roll her eyes at the daft image of her dog.

The dog didn't come away from Castiel until she emptied a tin of food into the plastic bowl she'd set up by the door. She rolled her eyes then moved to the bed where she began to pull on her socks and shoes. "So what where you saying about finding god?"

"He can stop the apocalypse."

"Right, I got that part" she rolled her eyes "how are you going to find him though?"

"There is a temple, it may hold clues to his location."

"And you want _me_ to go with you?" she was still sceptical.

"Yes."

"Again I am going to ask why, and this time you aren't going to pull a bull shit answer" she gave him a stern look "why?"

He hesitated, then replied "the temple is very narrow… I believe that a woman of your size could fit inside where the Winchesters couldn't."

"You picked me because I'm skinny?" she raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

"And I may wish to get to know my soul mate better" the glare he gave her now was determined.

Elise gave an exasperated sigh "Castile I'm not-"

"-I understand your argument against this Elise" he surprised her by saying quite calmly but firmly "but it is a fact, and I shall not relinquish you. I like you."

"You…you like me?" she frowned.

"Yes."

"Why? I mean I'm… I'm not exactly nice to you?"

He shrugged "that doesn't matter. I understand you have a particular hatred for my kind and likely have your reasons, I can only hope one day to understand those reasons are. Despite this prejudice you are always willing to explain things I do not understand, you are patient with me in spite of your hate, you are kind and you are loyal. You are also a very beautiful woman, and though I do not understand your humour I know from Dean's reactions that you are amusing."

While he was talking Jasper had come over and lay his head in her lap, looking up at her with big brown eyes while she petted his head slowly listening to the angel say all these nice things about her. She couldn't look up, because she was afraid of what she would feel if she saw the sincerity that was no doubt on the angel's face…

"Besides" the angel said softly "I am an angel of the lord Elise, rebellious or not, and I can see your true self and know that it is good."

Elise, shaking herself, looked up at the angel with the hardest stare she could give locking away the emotions that had risen to the surface at Castiel's words. What did it matter to her if no one else had said these things to her? It didn't! "Alright" she said flatly "stop with the sweet talk. I'll go with you to this temple-"

There was a knock on the door suddenly, and the sound of Dean Winchester yelling "Elise are you up?"

Jasper started barking and she got up to open the door, letting the Winchesters inside and the dog outside to do his business. Dean faltered a little when he saw Castiel, but continued into the room getting the half a pie he'd leftover the night before. Sam followed too, but he lingered in the doorway waiting for the dog to come back inside.

"I thought you were off looking for daddy?" Dean nodded at Cas, shoving a forkful of pie in his mouth then pointing the fork at Elise "we got a case, Rufus called Bobby" he managed to spray through a mouthful of pie.

"I am looking for god still" Castiel assured them "Elise is going to help me."

"She is?" Sam frowned, knowing about Elise's attitude to angels "why?"

Elise opened her mouth to let out whatever lie would come to her lips – but Castiel beat her. "Because she is my soul mate."

The brothers paused – Dean even stopped chewing and nearly choked himself in an effort to swallow so he could say "she's your what?"

"Soul mate."

"Don't listen" Elise growled "he's mistaken. Just because I can see the shadow of his wings all the time, he thinks I'm his soul mate or some shit."

"It's true."

"Like hell" she rolled her eyes.

"Ah you know what they say… hatred is the first sign of-"

"-finish that sentence Winchester and I'll feed you're next pie to Jasper."

Dean snorted, obviously amused before he said "so you going with Cas?"

"I'll meet you wherever you're going." She promised with a sincere nod "but will you do me a favour?"

"Dog?" Dean frowned.

"Dog"

"I don't want a dog in my car."

"I'll clean it?"

"No."

"How about Sam takes my car?" she held up the keys hopefully, and saw their doubtful expressions "c'mon, Sam you can listen to something other than Dean's so called 'mullet rock', and you know Jasper's a good dog on a hunt."

"He does have a nose for Demons" Dean said, looking down at the dog who looked right back up at him "but I aint picking up any poop."

"That's fine" Elise threw Sam her car keys, grinning at him "I owe you Sammy."

"You can start with this soul mate story" he said glancing between her and Castiel with a bit of an amused glint before he gave a sharp whistle, and Jasper had gone over to him instead. Elise didn't feel at all worried about leaving Jasper in Sam's care. He was always good with the dog.

"Alright well, meet up with you later then" Dean nodded.

"Later" she agreed with a smile. Before she could do much else, the motel was gone. The world under her feet moved and the sound of wings echoed in her ears before she was suddenly standing on a rocky cliff edge her feet half off the edge.

Elise made the mistake of looking down and her head span a little as she swayed – but before she could even being to fall hands gripped her middle and pulled her back against an impossibly warm body. She didn't need to look to know it was Castiel. Still despite his firm grip, the way the cold wind tugged at her, she had this horrible mental image of falling to her death.

"I won't let you fall" the angel's voice purred into her ear "this way, let my guide you, the way is narrow" one of his hands trailed down to grab her hand and he turned her to walk.

Elise frowned, not particularly happy with what she saw. There was a tiny, narrow rock bridge between the tiny space on which they stood and the dark mouth of a stone and quite obviously abandoned temple. She considered telling him to send her back – heights where not her particular favourite – but he gave a firm tug on her hand and took a step back onto the stone bridge himself. It began to crumble under his foot, but he didn't look anywhere than at Elise's face. "Come" he instructed, and despite her pounding heart Elise felt herself taking a step forwards. And another. And another.

She froze on the little bridge when a particularly large piece of the rock fell from under her leaving her standing on about three inches of crumbling stone. Her grip on Castiel's hand became bruisingly tight but he didn't show any reaction other than a concerned tilt of his eyebrows. "Elise, trust me. Just one more step" he said it calmly and despite herself, despite the voice in her head telling her not to trust and angel, Elise found herself take the last few steps at a kind of skipping run until she was standing in front of the temple with him.

"Castiel…" she couldn't seem to keep the nervous fear from her voice though she tried to give him a stern look "if there is a next time, please land us somewhere I bit bloody safer?"

He chuckled "I shall try. I would have taken us inside directly but I was not confident we could both fit in the small space."

She peered into the temple, and saw it was indeed quite small. Dean perhaps could had fit, but Sam certainly wouldn't have. "Why is it so small?" she asked.

"Likely to prevent people from entering" he said, taking the first few steps inside. He held a hand out in front of him like he was holding something and even as Elise watched a blue-white orb of glowing light appeared in his hand illuminating the darkness of the temple.

"What's that?" she asked, frowning, and following him inside. It was a good thing she was not claustrophobic as well as afraid of heights. They had to edge inside sideways. It was not the first time Elise had been glad she had small breasts, but in this instance she was very pleased.

"Just a small portion of my grace" he told her simply, then paused "there appears to be a small opening up ahead."

"Is it what we're looking for?"

"I doubt it would be found so easily… I am concerned if could be some sort of booby trap."

"Well, only one way to find out" she gave him a slight shove and he began to move again nodding. When they got to the opening however he stuck his head out cautiously. Nothing happened however until he stepped out, obviously triggering something. Elise winched when she heard a noise, and when she opened her eyes again Castiel had managed to dodge any serious injury, though there was a stone arrow protruding from his shoulder which he pulled out swiftly, turning to look at her.

"You know, that is usually the point when you say 'ouch'" she told him.

"But I did not feel more than a little bit of pain?" he tilted his head.

"Yeah but… you get any kind of injury, humans just kind of expect an 'ouch'. Just an FYI if you ever try be normal." She was looking around the little room, just barely big enough for the two of them to stand in. Each wall had yet another tiny narrow passage way. "Please tell me you know which one is the right one because I don't fancy checking them all" she sighed "I'm not usually bad in a tight space – hunting kind of takes that out of you – but spend too long in them and even I get cabin fever…"

"You get sick from small spaces?"

"Not that kind of fever" she couldn't help but smirk a bit. Sometimes it was had to believe the angel wasn't just trying to make her laugh.

Castiel held the ball of his grace higher, trying to find any clues as to which path would be the correct one. The walls however where unmarked except by age and he sighed himself glancing at the petite woman beside him. "I shall check them, and call you down when I find the correct one, to prevent this… cabin fever."

He'd shuffled away down the path closest to him before she could comment. Elise waited a bit anxiously as the light left with him, but he soon returned up that path with a shake of his head and said something about snakes. On his way down the second path however, Elise felt a familiar kind of chill on her skin, and before the light went too far she blew outwards experimentally and saw her own breath come in a cloud. "Castiel!" she called, a little worried "what are the chances of a ghost in here?"

He paused, she saw that in the way the light stopped moving, and he called "Elise, I believe you are correct. There is a ghost here."

"No shit" she whispered, having turned around to find just the shimmering outside of the ghost standing a few paces opposite her down the first path Castiel had checked. She froze. She had no salt, no iron, and for the first time since she started hunting was vulnerable to the ghost…

The ghost let out a terrifying shriek and Elise's blood ran cold until a hand clasped over her eyes and through the fingers she saw the light of Castiel's grace become brighter, more intense for only a split second. Apparently however the second was long enough, and the hand removed itself from her eyes to reveal Castiel now standing in front of her, his eyes almost seeming to glow blue in gloom. "You, uh, didn't say there would be ghosts here" she told him, shifting a little to try and move away from the wall that had arrows poking out of it and into her ribs. She ended up caught between the wall and Castiel, her front pressed against his. Being a celestial being however she was pretty sure he wouldn't notice the predicament.

"I had not considered it, though I should have, knowing that the bones of those who died creating this place where placed within its structure."

"Yeah, I can imagine being a pissed off spirit if you used by skull as a brick" she muttered, wriggling a bit more to get out from in front of him. He didn't move, as still as one of the stone walls that surrounded them. "Did you see anything down that way? I don't think splitting up is a good idea anymore."

"No" he agreed "but I did see Enochian symbols towards the end of that passage. I believe it to be the correct one."

"Great, I'll head down first this time, you protect the rear."

It took a bit of shuffling, but thankfully no more ghosts, and Elise found another room. This one was almost as small as the first, but its walls where inscribed with symbols she couldn't read, and the wall had been painted with image depicting – if the wings on their shoulder blades where anything to go by – angels. Was this was he was looking for?

Castiel made it into the room, looked around, and then stared at her a bit expectantly.

"What?" she frowned.

"I was wondering if you had the ability to read Enochian" he shrugged, looking away.

"Should I?"

"Some nephilim where known to have it, yes" he answered in a mutter, completely engrossed in reading what was on the wall. After a few minutes, he sighed.

"What?"

"This is not as useful as I would have hoped" he said, resigned "this is simply a story of how all the angels came to be, the ones who were created by god that is."

"Really?" she was kind of interested, despite her aversion to angels.

He turned, having picked up on her interest, and edged up along the wall until he was behind her. Elise froze a little when she felt his warmth behind her, but relaxed after a second and was calm when he reached over, pointing at a particular group of symbols and said "that is the creation of my garrison."

"So you're one of the one created by god?"

"Of course. There are maybe a few hundred angels created by other means, but the rest by god. My garrison was his last" he sounded a little sad.

Elise smirked however and looked at him over her shoulder "so you're only a baby angel then? The little brother of everyone else?"

He frowned a little "in a sense, yes."

"Aw that makes you even cut-"Elise froze speaking and frowned at herself. Had she been about to say the angel was cute? No wait, she was going to say 'cuter'! Did that mean she already found him cute? She cleared her throat instead and asked "okay, so this isn't what you wished to find. What do we do now?"

"I am… not sure. I do not know where to begin looking" Elise heard the kind of lost hopelessness in his voice, and felt sorry for him.

She nearly snorted at that, never had she thought she'd feel sympathy for an angel. Nor did she ever think she'd do something to cheer him up – like start asking questions about something he knew about. "So what is the rest of this writing? Just stories about how you feather-brains where created or is there anything else interesting?" she bent slightly, intending to ask about the little paintings, and inadvertently ended up pressing herself back into Castiel.

"Elise" his deep tone had a newer gravelly sound too it that she'd only heard when he was particularly angry or irritated about something.

That made her stand up straight again, and even turned around "Castiel? Is something wrong? Is there another-"

"-stop talking" he said it like an order, and Elise got a good look at him. His jaw was clenched, and the pupils of his eyes large. She frowned. "I find myself having a rather carnal reaction to your close proximity and touches that is having an effect on my actions." He told her, in one breath.

 _Oh_ , Elise felt her eyes widen as she realised what was with the change in him. "Uh-" she began but froze once more when Castiel moved suddenly, pushing her back against the wall almost completely with his body and leaning his face so close their noses where side by side in the same way he had done after kissing her at Chuck's house. His eyes where wide however and watching her carefully with one hand against the wall beside her head and the other still holding his grace as their only light source.

"I won't kiss you" he said softly "because that isn't what you want-"

Elise frowned at that, because right that second it was all her body wanted. Her rational mind argued against it, reminded her he was an angel and that she was supposed to hate him not be seduced by him. But she couldn't deny the flutter of her heart, the heat that pooled in the pit of her stomach and made her toes curl in her boots.

Castiel continued without waiting for a reply however "-I am patient Elise, and I shall wait for you. I will wait until you believe what I believe, and I will be here."

He cut off any reply she had – snarky or otherwise – by pressing his lips softly to the spot of her neck under her jaw and making the warmth in the put of her stomach head further south. Almost as quickly however he had moved away – and she thought she saw a bit of a smug look on his face when he turned away. She still said nothing, too stunned and frankly a little scared by her body's reaction, and followed Castiel as he began to edge back out of the little tunnels.

Eventually he did break the silence however and he asked "Elise, if you do not mind my asking, but why is it that you hate angel's so much?"

She paused, hesitating, but decided that maybe she did owe him an explanation for her harsh treatment of him. She took a deep breath and she said "you remember the night we met, how Uriel as quick to act on the orders to kill a nephilim like me?"

He nodded, glancing at her.

"That wasn't the first time an angel has had a similar reaction. When I was eleven my father took my older brother and I on a hike. Well, it was a hunt but I didn't know that I just thought it was a fun day out. What my father didn't count on however was that the witch we were hunting would have a very special book, and she accidentally summoned some angels… not only did they kill the witch but they killed my brother and my father without even hesitating long enough to learn their names or why they were there. The only reason I survived was because my father had hidden me under the house's foundation, and I saw everything through the cracks in the wood. It was the first time I understood why my father had always told my brother and me to stay away from angels."

She saw him stop in front of her, but didn't say anything, and so she continued "I called Uncle Bobby. He's not actually my uncle, we're related very distantly, but he was the only other hunter in the family so we were quite close. He came to get me, though I didn't tell him what had killed my family. My father always told me never to tell anyone what I was, or anything about angels. He said it was too dangerous. Anyway Bobby came to get me and took me back to his place where, coincidentally Sam and Dean where staying for the month. Actually it was supposed to be a week but John vanished for a bit… I kind of adopted them as my new family."

"Elise I-"Castiel stopped speaking, instead he reached out and grabbed her wrist lightly. It was enough, and Elise felt the world around her shift and wings echoed in her ears once more. They were outside now, in some wooded area. She frowned looking around.

"Where are we?"

"I am not sure, somewhere in South Dakota I believe, I just wished to be able to speak with you face to face" he was looking at her intently, blue eyes almost burning into her as he said "Elise I know you do not trust or even like me, you may even still hate me, but I swear to you that for as long as I am around no one – angel or otherwise – shall touch you without my permission."

Elise, unable to keep a smart remark off her tongue when she thought of it, said with a very slight grin "will I have to start carrying permission slips for people to sign or…?"

He frowned, obviously not understanding.

Elise heaved a sigh, clasped her hands behind her back and looked down at the floor as she said "Castiel, in truth… I guess I don't _hate_ you. But I'm having a hard time letting go of years of preconception…"

He tilted his head but looked pleased. "I understand" he nodded.

"I guess we can call a truce?" she offered him her hand.

He took her hand, and used it to pull her flush against his chest. Elise let out a muffled squeak when his lips suddenly slanted over hers in a rough but quick kiss. When he released her she took a few steps back, staring at his smirk.

"What the hell was that?" she scowled.

"I was sealing a deal with my soul mate" he said a bit brazenly.

Despite herself Elise felt an amused smirk tugging at her lips and she folded her arms "I am going to be very careful making any kinds of deals with you in the future if that's how you seal them. I don't like having kisses stolen from me…"

His expression turned serious suddenly "I am the only one who steals kisses from you" he told her in an authoritative tone.

She raised an eyebrow "Is that so?"

"You are _my_ soul mate Elise" he said it simply "our bodies have identified each other even if your mind is against it, and will not respond properly to another."

"Respond properly?" she couldn't help tease him "you mean if another woman tried to sleep with you your body wouldn't-uh- preform?"

He tilted his head, frowning, then seemed to realise what she meant as he said "Oh, no. Our bodies will still preform sexually with others but it will not be nearly as fulfilling as with each other and you may even experience some symptoms such as nausea."

"Oh great, so now that you think we're soul mates I'm destined for a crappy sex life?"

He stared at her for a second, no expression on his face. Elise chose not to make a comment – it was a bit weird to consider the nearly innocent angel propositioning sex with her of all people. Actually her psyche was still having trouble with the fact it was an _angel_ doing that, and that she wasn't _completely_ adverse to the idea…

"Okay" she shook her head of those thoughts, she'd probably only tie herself up on knots anyway, and looked at the angel again "so that temple was a bust. What are we going to do now?"

His shoulders fell a little and he looked away from her "I do not know."

"Well…" Elise bit her lip "there must be someone who's seen – or at least heard – from god since he vamoosed out of heaven?"

"There is" Castiel nodded "an angel by the name of Joshua, he takes residence in the garden."

"So let's go find this garden and have a chat with Josh."

"We cannot. The garden, and Joshua, are in heaven… and I am locked out" he sighed dismally, obviously quite saddened by this fact.

Elise couldn't blame him, but at the same time she found it hard to be empathetic. She'd never really had a home of her own, always being on the road hunting even after her father and brother where killed. She could only imagine what it was like for the angel to be locked out of his home, as well as being hated by the other angels…

So she said, chewing her cheek "what you did, for Dean and Sam, it was a good thing. I hope you don't regret it."

He looked at her "I do not regret it, but I fear that in the future I might."

"Well-" she gave him an amused look "-if you ever do start regretting it, I'll be happy to give you a good smack and get your head back on straight?"

"I believe you might enjoy that too much" he replied a bit dryly.

"Probably, but I hit Dean on a near regular basis so don't feel too put out by it" she winked then said "I suppose if we're done with this uh, god search, that you wouldn't mind dropping me back off to wherever Sam is? I kind of miss my dog."

He nodded and took her hand, but rather than moving them he just stared at her for a second and said "Elise?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you do not hate me."

"Oh don't get me wrong, you still do a few things that get on my nerves" she teased.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER FOUR**

 ** _March, 2010_**

It happened when Elise took on a demon hunt solo, and quite by accident came across Lucifer's inner circle. At least she assumed it was his inner circle because they were flanking the angel-turned-bad when she'd rounded the corner. Ironically she hadn't even been looking for the demons in that second (she'd actually just been coming back from the supermarket) and it didn't look like they had been looking for her either. Everyone had kind of stopped, too surprised, before Lucifer had addressed Elise.

He knew what she was of course, and funnily he became the second angel besides Castiel who did not want to kill her. Well technically Anna was another angel who hadn't wanted to kill her, but given her recent attempt to kill the Winchester boys Elise wasn't feeling too kindly towards Anna. He made some propositions asking her if she would help him, Elise had made some snarky comments, and then the demons had attacked her.

That had been a few weeks ago. Now Elise was back travelling with Dean and Sam. They were currently in a town that not only knew about the apocalypse but everyone in it had become hunters. They'd even seen a bunch of kids making salt rounds in the basement of a church.

She and Sam had gotten a bit tipsy at a bar that night, talking to the local bar man Paul who turned out to be quite a nice guy. When they came back, Sam and Dean had argued over leaving the town or staying. Elise had to agree with Sam, something felt fishy, but Dean had a point in saying how they appeared to be handing it very well. It didn't matter – Dean took off to get some fresh air leaving her and Sam alone and now feeling quite a bit more sober. Which was good, because the last person either of them expected stagger in absolutely hammered not long after Dean left.

Elise tried not to laugh at Castiel, but drunk he was certainly a lot funnier. He didn't even seem to notice her at first, though she was hidden in a dark corner, he seemed himself enough to remember that Leah Gideon was not the name of any of the prophets, but when Sam asked what she _was_ Castiel only shrugged. Sam rolled his eyes, even as the angel pushed past him. Castiel flopped down on the motel couch beside Elise. She thought that was all he was going to do, so she was quite shocked when he suddenly grabbed her by the waist and pulled her onto his lap.

"Cas-!" she tried to protest but one dark look from him shut her up. He'd never looked at her like that before, there had been heated looks of course since she'd confessed to not hating him and those had both interested her and made her uncomfortable. The look he gave her now made heat pool in her stomach almost immediately and she had a flash of dirty thoughts that involved him looking at her like that with far less clothes involved – and even as she banished those thoughts from her mind, Castiel smirked in a way that she knew he had just read her thoughts. She sighed and looked away from him, glancing at Sam.

Sam just gave her a kind of sympathetic shrug, though there was a smirk on his lips. She returned the shrug. "I'll go get some books from the car" Sam said with a sigh, grabbing the keys from where Dean had left them "we can do some research, hopefully find out what Leah really is…"

Elise nearly rolled her eyes "Sammy just loves his research…" she muttered, though he had already left so he didn't hear her.

Castiel was scowling at her as she sat rather awkwardly across his lap looking not quite comfortable but not too adverse to where he placed her. The angel knew, especially in his intoxicated state, that he was not the best being to gauge the mood of another – especially of a human, or near human like Elise, but he liked to think he knew his soul mate (from many weeks of observation now) enough to identify when she was sad. He reached out, letting his fingertips trail softly over her cheek as he tucked a piece of her dark hair behind her ear and exposed the profile of her soft face to his view. He felt her stiffen at that, and he asked in a murmur "what is bothering you Elise?"

"Aside from the fact you just grabbed me and pushed me onto your own lap like I'm some kind of giant teddy bear?" she answered him sarcastically – then sniffed and added "or the fact you reek like a brewery?"

"I may be intoxicated Elise, but I know something is bothering you" he leaned his head back on the sofa looking up at the ceiling rather than her. "There is a difference in your lips, they tug down even when you smile, and your eyes are tired and have no light…"

Elise was kind of touched he paid enough attention to her that even drunk he could tell she was upset – but she was saved from answering him by Sam entering the room. He dumped the keys on the side table and came over, passing her one of the four large books he had hold of. "So what am I looking for?" she asked, opening the dusty tomb and coughing at its musty smell.

"Demon's I guess" Sam shrugged, looked at Castiel for confirmation but he was still looking straight up at the ceiling rather than anywhere else. "Something to do with the apocalypse too I'll bet."

"Okeydokey" she muttered, flicking through the book and scanning the words in record speed. Elise knew she really shouldn't tease Sam for liking his research, when she knew that she herself was just as much of a bookworm as the young Winchester.

They were researching for maybe fifteen minutes before Castiel suddenly looked around and asked gently "Elise, where is Jasper?"

On his lap Elise tensed suddenly, her expression got darker and when she turned the page of the book it was with a little more force than was necessary. Sam noticed this too, and for the first time he frowned noticing the dog's absence. And now that he thought about it, Elise had been hunting with them for a few days and hadn't mentioned Jasper at all… he fixed Elise with a suspicious look. "Where _is_ Jasper?" he frowned, watching her.

Elise stood abruptly from Castiel's lap, startling both the intoxicated angel and Sam, and walked out of the motel room without a word.

After a second of looking after her Castiel stood intending to follow her. He wobbled slightly on his feet and Sam moved to steady him. "Uh, dude, I think you better let me-"

"-she is _my_ mate" the angel fixed Sam with a glare that he was sure, had angels the ability to kill with a look, would've sent him six feet under.

"-uh, right, yeah I wasn't – look. Cas. I've known Elise a long time and I just think you should know that this is the way she acts when she's… grieving" Sam frowned, hoping the angel had enough wits to understand what Sam was telling him.

For a second blue eyes stared at brown- and then the angel frowned as realisation slipped over him and he asked "you believe the dog has reached an untimely demise?"

"Well… yeah" Sam nodded "so uh, don't be surprised if Elise isn't herself. Okay?"

"What do you mean not herself? Elise is always Elise."

"I mean if she doesn't act like she normally would" Sam sighed as he sat back down "but go, go see if she's okay."

The angel nodded, blinked and vanished. He reappeared in Elise's location and with his mind fuzzy from alcohol it took him a moment to realise he was Elise's car. What was more interesting was she didn't appear to be there… he didn't see her until he looked in the back seat, and found her watching him with narrowed eyes. "Ah, there you are" he said, still obviously drunk.

Elise's expression turned grim when she realised that he was still drunk, but she leaned back in her seat and looked out of the window with a sigh and confirmed what Sam had implied – "Jasper died a few weeks ago, on a hunt."

"Do you wish to talk about it?" the angel tilted his head.

"What's to talk about?" she laughed without humour "I ran into your brother and his demonic minions. Jasper took the shot for me. He was a good dog."

Castiel frowned, in the dark able to see the dampness of her eyes and the grim set of her mouth, and for a moment it sobered him up. "I… do not understand how I am supposed to comfort you. Angels do not grieve like humans."

She gave a small smile "you don't have to comfort me Castiel, its cool."

"Yes, it is quite cold but that is beside the point. You are obviously upset Elise, and I wish to make you feel better" he began to climb – clumsily, unused to the manoeuvring required as well as hazed from drink – into the back seat, and Elise turned to him a bit amused by this as he finally managed to fall into the seat beside her.

"You can't just snap your fingers and make someone feel better Castiel" she paused "okay, most of the time _you_ can but not with this. Grieving just needs time. Jasper was my best friend, some people don't get that because he was a dog, it's always going to hurt that he's gone. But it'll fade, like everything else…"

"Is there nothing I can do to help you?" he tilted his head again and asked softly.

Elise paused, pretending to think, and then she heave a sigh as she said "Yeah. You can help us kick Lucifer's ass. C'mon, we better go back and help Sam."

They went back into the motel, Castiel taking up his seat on the couch again while Elise got herself a beer. Sam didn't react more than to glance between the pair, and he smirked slightly as Elise tried to take the seat at the other end of the couch, only to get dragged right back against Cas by the angel himself. She looked irritated, but she didn't protest, and the angel looked smug.

When Dean came in, looking grim at the news of Paul the barman's death at the hands of another of the townsfolk, he was surprised to see Castiel (though relived a little) and took a long enough pause from his seriousness to smirk at Elise in the angel's lap and said "Oh look at the little soul mates."

Elise threw him an irritated glare, but she didn't argue. It seemed these days that the only time Sam or Dean really laughed then it was at her expense to tease her about this soul mate thing. So she let them, because hell at least _something_ was bringing them some amusement. Her glare didn't last very long however, she nearly choked when Castiel snapped at Dean "On a bender!"

Later, after Castiel admitted they had nothing that would kill the Whore, the angel took off to go and get something that would. Elise felt a little concerned about letting a drunk angel zap himself off to god knows where, and after three minutes of his absence she was convinced he'd wound up in the middle of the sea somewhere by accident. She didn't say that out loud – Dean and Sam would have a field day if she showed any concern for the angel after her weeks of 'I hate angels'. When he reappeared with a stake that could kill the Whore she was a little relived, and from the knowing glance she got off the angel she'd say he knew it. _Damn_. And then the conversation about needing a servant of heaven to kill the whore.

"Servant, like…" Dean looked a bit hopefully at Castiel – who was still a bit unsteady looking on his feet.

The angel answered almost immediately "not you. Or me. Sam, of course, is an abomination. We'll have to find someone else."

"Elise?" Sam looked at her.

"Me?" she raised an eyebrow "that won't work."

"Why not?" Dean looked her up and down in an examining kind of way "you're nephilim, gonna get your wings someday. What do you think Cas?"

Before the angel could answer Elise jumped forward a little and protested further "because even when I get my wings I already plan to _fall_ which I doubt is the sign of an obedient angel, and because I know I've broken at least six of those ten commandment thingy's and at least five of the seven deadly sins-"

"- most recently lust" the angel behind her hissed so quietly she probably wasn't supposed to hear him.

"What?" Dean frowned at peered around her at the angel.

"Nothing" Elise snapped, glaring over her shoulder at the angel in an obvious way to get him to shut up. Then her expression turned sly and she added quieter "but if anyone is guilty of that one Castiel, it's totally you." Castiel's expression became surprised at her words and playfulness, but darkened again as he met her gaze before she loudly asked "What about the Pastor?"

"Leah's father?" Sam frowned "we can't ask him to kill his own daughter."

"She's not his daughter anymore" Dean grimaced "Cas?"

"The pastor should work" the angel nodded "we shall fetch him-"

"-we?" Elise had only enough time to frown before the world under her feet left her and she was standing outside in the cold. She looked around, and realised they were outside of the church. The area was completely deserted, no doubt everyone was inside. Suddenly hands grabbed her waist and pulled her flush against Castiel's body. Elise let out a startled squeak before Castiel's mouth slanted over hers, one hand skirting up her back and burying itself in her hair. Elise was tense under his grip, startled and a little bit afraid, able to taste and smell the alcohol still on the angel who kissed her. He stopped kissing her after only a moment, he didn't seem upset that she had frozen rather than kissed him back.

He leant his head on hers and muttered very softly "don't be afraid of me Elise, it is never my intention to scare you. Unfortunately you were correct when you state I was guilty of the sin of lust, this is the first time I am struggling to contain an emotion and your teasing, or the fact I know you at least lust for me in return, is not helping."

Elise was going to reply – she didn't know what she was going to say – but her mouth was open when she heard the sound of footsteps. She jumped away from Castiel, in time for the Pastor himself to walk around the corner. He faltered when he saw her, frowning. "Elise?"

"Pastor Gideon" she said it respectfully, but her voice was a bit stark.

"Who's that?" he nodded at Castiel.

"I'm an angel of the lord" Castiel said.

"Yeah, sure" Gideon grunted in disbelief.

Castiel didn't reply – instead Elise felt the world shift under feet and suddenly she, the angel, and Gideon where all standing in the motel room. She snorted, a bit amused, and figured that might at least be proof enough.

* * *

Elise sat with Bobby in his van on the way to Detroit. Castiel had wanted to ride with her – now that he was almost human he stuck to her like a puppy and didn't like letting her out of his sight – but things happened and he ended up in Sam and Dean's back seat letting her alone with her only living relative for a while.

She was nervous, and from the lack of speaking, music or radio chatter, she could guess that Bobby was as well. Sam was going to say yes. Sam was going to jump into the cage with Lucifer trapped inside his head and well… Elise was terrified for him.

"You're awful quiet" Bobby broke the silence.

"So're you" she fired back, but without her usual teasing bite to it. This time her words came out soft, and tired.

"Yeah but I'm usually quiet. You're usually signing along to some music or whatever" he pointed out.

"This… doesn't feel like the kind of ride where you can sing along" she sighed "I'm petrified for Sam. I mean what if this doesn't-"

"-it will" he grunted.

"Even so" she countered "I just… what're we gonna do without Sam?"

Bobby glanced at her, pity and sympathy in his eyes. He loved those boys like his sons, she knew that in the same way he loved her like she was his own. They were a family, barely any blood involved, and loosing just one of their little group would be heart breaking – but losing two? Because she knew, Sam had already confessed to her, that he was going to make Dean promise to get out of the life, to not look for him. He'd tried to make her give the same promise, but she couldn't.

"I…" Bobby faltered, then steeled himself up as he said "we carry on. We hunt things and we save the idjits who get caught by the monsters."

Elise nodded, but said nothing as she stared out of the van's window at the lights of the impala in front of them. They passed under a street light and could see into the smaller car, could see Sam obviously talking to Dean, though Dean was in shadow, and slumped in the back just visible by an arm spread over the back of the seat and the black crop of hair at the top of his head, Castiel.

Bobby decided to add to his little speech, giving her a sly glance "-perhaps we give a certain angel a chance…"

"Bobby…" she turned a mock glare on him, unable to keep a smile from creeping up on her face.

"What?" he laughed a bit "I'm serious. You ain't seen the way that poor mook looks at you, it's giving me cavities. You've got an honest to goodness angel head over heels for you and you push him away?"

"Yeah, and you know why-"

"-I do, and I understand that. Funny thing is I know you too well kid, and you don't hate that angel at all."

Elise continued to glare at Bobby, and he at her only flicking his eyes to the road to make sure they didn't crash. Still with his attention diverted the van cruised closer to the Impala than Dean obviously liked and he honked his horn to tell them that. Elise turned to look at the Impala, a small grin on her face when she realised the horn sound had startled Castiel...

" _Dammit_ Bobby" she sighed, noticing the way he gave a smug chuckle. "Fine" she said "I don't hate him… but still, this whole soul mate thing he's going on about..."

"Yeah, it's scary" Bobby nodded "but you know what? Most people would kill to be in your shoes and know they're with the right person. I mean who else have you ever picked up? Some random guy in a bar? I've never seen or heard of you in a relationship that lasted more than a night –even Dean has a better relationship record than you!"

Elise scowled and looked away from him, thinking that while he was right and was only trying to give her good advice – because it was good advice – and probably only did it because he was quite concerned they'd all die on this try to take out Lucifer, that he couldn't understand how it would feel for her to go along with Castiel… because in truth, she'd feel like she was betraying her father and brother for having any relationship with an angel.

Still, she decided to sigh and answer him "I suppose you'd like to know that Castiel so kindly informed me that now I've met him and identified him as my apparent soul mate that sex with other guys will be ungratifying, so I'll probably not pick up guys in bars much anymore…"

"He really said that?" Bobby frowned.

"Yeah" she smirked, able to sense Bobby's slight edge of protectiveness coming out.

True enough he sighed and muttered "I better not have to give a fricking angel _the talk_ …"

 **X**

A week later and Elise was outside in Bobby's yard putting the last repairs on her car. It hadn't really needed fixed, she'd just thought to do it before she set out on the road again… she had a feeling she wouldn't come back to see Bobby in a while… she had too many memories of Sam running around his place, as adults and kids, and it was breaking her heart to know he was in the cage…

She heard wings and sighed under the car. She didn't roll out right away however. She waited until she saw shoes, and the belt of a tan over coat, before she rolled out from under the car and looked up at Castiel's intense blue eyes. "I thought you went back to the heavenly roost?" she asked a bit dryly. She couldn't seem to get any other emotion into her voice, not since Sam had jumped…

He raised an eyebrow at her "you thought I would not come to you when you needed me Elise?"

"I don't need yo-"

"-you are not feeding yourself, and you are mourning the loss of your friend" he said in a more authoritative tone, cutting across her denial for his help and giving her a stern look. When she didn't answer he held out a hand, which she accepted after a brief second of glaring at it and he pulled her up to stand. "You might not need me in a sense you can identify Elise, but your soul and mine call to each other, and yours is calling now more so than ever before."

"Or maybe that's a load of bullshit, and you're the one who needs me" she countered a bit irritably, moving past him and pretending to sort through the tools on the work bench.

"Perhaps" he replied softly, and she couldn't help but look over her shoulder and see the soft expression on his face.

She gulped and looked away again "I'm fine."

"You aren't eating."

"I'm not hungry."

"Elise… you must eat. I can sense you're emotions and they are frankly quite a distraction to me while in heaven. Besides your body required even more energy than a normal humans, and I must insist that you do not harm yourself-"

"-Alright!" she snapped at him, banging a fist on the work bench and effectively silencing him "fine, I'll eat something if that will get you off my back! No more distracting emotions, okay?"

Castiel tilted his head, unseen to her since she had turned away again, and said "I believe you may have been upset by my words, and I see now how they could have been misconstrued as callous. I am not concerned with the distraction your emotions provide Elise, I am concerned about the emotions I can feel. I am concerned about _you_."

Elise sighed, still refusing to look at him. She was a little worried that if she did look at him, if he did crowed her personal space like he usually did, than she would break and the tears she had been denying would fall. "I'm fine Castiel."

"But you-"

"-I know, I'm not fine. But I am. It's a human thing Castiel, to say you are fine when you're not."

"Why?" she could practically hear the head tilt in his voice.

"Lots of reasons. Because you don't want to talk about what's bothering you, or because you think the person asking if you're okay can't actually understand what you're feeling…"

"Which one are you?"

"Well… if you can feel my emotions, I guess I don't have to tell you about them. Though you're not very good identifying them from your past track records…" she tossed him a sad smile over her shoulder, trying to convey that despite her sadness she was joking "I'm definitely the first Castiel. I just don't want to talk about it."

The angel nodded, but she doubted he really understood. It was funny, the way he didn't understand human things but the second she would explain he would just accept what she said as truth. It was a good job that she – unlike Dean – had never tried to play a joke with the angel's gullibility.

"What are you going to do now Elise?" he asked suddenly, a slight frown on his face.

"I'm going to hunt" she frowned too, thinking that was obvious.

"Alone?"

"Well…yeah."

He didn't look like he liked the idea, his mouth took on a grim setting and his eyes turned hard, but he nodded "you will be careful?"

She raised a surprised eyebrow "you're not going to try and stop me?"

"No" he frowned now "should I?"

"Uh, no… it's just, well Sam before he- yeah- and Dean they both tried to get me to stop…"

He looked suddenly uncertain "d-do you want me to stop you?"

"No" she raised both her eyebrows now "of course not, I was just surprised that the dude who claims to be my soul mate is the one who gives me his blessing to go put myself in danger and kick some monster butt."

He looked at his shoes for a second, and back up to her eyes again "I trust you" he said, quietly "and respect that this is what you choose to do with your life, I also believe you too be a very capable huntress, and hope that should a dangerous situation arise you shall be smart enough to call for help and not place yourself in needless peril."

Elise sighed, turning back away from him. Damn the angel made it hard to keep a wall between them… "Well it'll be hard to be in too much trouble with an angel like you on my shoulder."

"I will not be able to help you always."

"I figured" she looked over her shoulder "you're going back to heaven, aren't you?"

He nodded twice, eyes never leaving hers "it is… chaos up there. I cannot leave them to suffer."

"After they tried to start the apocalypse?" she raised an eyebrow "you're a hell of a good guy Castiel."

"Not all of my brothers wished to start the apocalypse" his tone got a little hard, defensive.

"I didn't mean to offend" she said.

He took a deep breath, calming himself apparently, before he said "I shall try to visit you Elise."

"You don't have to do that" she knew telling him that wouldn't deter him.

Of course he reminded her "you're my soul mate" then he added in an almost purr "I couldn't stay away if I tried."

"Sweet-talker" she fired over her shoulder.

"Oh…" he said suddenly, like he had just remembered something. When he didn't continue Elise looked over her shoulder and saw the expression of uncertainty on his face again.

"What?"

"Dean… did not think it a good idea for me to say this, but I wished for you to know as it might bring you some comfort. In heaven, there is a place where human souls do not go. My father created it for the other creatures of his world. I checked and… Jasper is there. He is happy."

Elise and fully turned to him as he was talking and stood there with her mouth agape just staring at him. He looked uncertain under her gaze, obviously unable to tell if he had said the right thing and pleased her or the wrong thing and upset her further.

He got his answer when Elise purposefully strode over to him, grabbing him by his tie and yanked him down so he was at a reachable height for her. She pressed her lips to his in a hard, meaningful kiss that Castiel took full advantage of, nipping at her bottom lip. Before he could deepen the kiss however she had stepped back from him, her lips swollen and damp and eyes dilated as she stared. "Uh… d-don't read too much into that…" she said, stuttering a little.

The angel only regarded her with a tilt of his head and a funny look.

Elise sighed, shifting uncomfortably on her feet now and chose to stare at the wing mirror of her car just behind him as she said "thank you Castiel… I really needed to hear that."

He smiled, a crooked and kind of boyish smile, obviously pleased he had done something right for her.

Elise cleared her throat, going back to the tools behind her as she asked the angel "so what are you going to do now?"

"I… I have tried to teach the other angels of free will but they do not seem to understand. I shall keep trying however, though I am concerned Raphael wishes to restart the apocalypse."

"My ass!" she dropped a wrench and it clattered to the ground.

"Pardon?"

"My ass, he's not going to start the apocalypse all over again. We lost a good man stopping it, and I think it all about broke Dean, so you know what? Raphael can shove it."

"I don't understand, what can he shove?"

"His opinion" she growled, casting him a dangerous look "you won't let him restart the apocalypse, will you?"

"I shall try not too…" he looked down at the ground, a slight frown on his face.

"Wait" Elise paused "are you… I mean, he's an archangel and he's already iced you once. You're not in any danger of getting blown to bits again are you? Because honestly that's happened twice now and if you die one more time I'm going to punch you. It's only fair, I mean I've punched both Sam and Dean when they've come back to life…"

He tilted his head "where you unhappy they came back?"

"No" she folded her arms "I was pissed that they worried me only to come freaking well back."

He smile slowly grew on his lips "so you are saying that you worried for me when you thought I was dead?"

"I-"she faltered a little, tilting her own head "yeah, okay. I guess, just a bit. Stop looking so pleased, you've been popping in on me with a startling frequency for almost a year it's only natural I'd start to feel a bit attached!"

He took a step forwards, looking down at her and said with an inappropriate amount of smugness for an angel (at least in Elise's opinion) "Exactly."

She gave him a grim look, trying to hide her amusement but all too aware that he'd probably feel it through whatever bond they had, and gave him a slight shove on the chest. He didn't even sway. "Shouldn't you be in heaven preaching free will?"

His smile slipped and he gave a solemn nod as he replied "yes, I have already been away longer than I said I would be…" he leaned forwards, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead and gave her a gentle look "I shall see you again soon Elise."

There was a flutter of wings, a breeze swept over Elise's face, and Castiel was gone. She was alone again, and the smile slid from her expression with that realisation.

"Yeah… soon."


	5. Chapter 5

_Sorry to the people who follow this story, it should have been updated last night only I've had a few sudden difficulties. Basically my house's eletrical wiring has been trying to kill me for the past year (who knew?) and the weird fishy smell my family has been blaming on next door (because he likes sardines) has actually been the smell of melting wiring... which actually explains a lot of why we've all been quite sick this year since the fumes are somewhat toxic. Anyway, part of the eletrics are back online including the wi-fi and a plug socket to charge my laptop so I dont have to write chapters by hand now! WooHoo! Hope you enjoy the chapter, and thanks for the reviews, they really cheered me up while I was trying to write this chapter in candle light! _

* * *

**CHAPTER FIVE**

 ** _October, 2010_**

Sam and Dean went back to Bobby's after their little trip to Scotland going after Crowley's bones. Sam didn't think it was important to go see Bobby after this, and had wanted to head straight to Kansas where he'd heard of a werewolf problem. Dean had argued that the newspaper report didn't sound like a werewolf attack and that they should go see Bobby – the icing on the cake was when the lunar cycle didn't coincide with a werewolf, so it was to Bobby's they went.

When they got to Bobby's it was quite late, so the boys expected maybe a quite few rounds of drinking and they'd all hit the sack. This was not the case.

They found Bobby in his study frowning at a phone like it had just insulted his ancestors.

"Bobby?" Sam asked.

Bobby looked up and nodded "boys" he said before looking back at his phone.

"You know, if you want that to work you're supposed to dial it?" Dean frowned, nodding to the phone in Bobby's hand.

"Hah-hah" Bobby returned dryly, putting the phone on his desk "have either of you two heard from Elise?"

"Elise?" Sam looked like he was struggling to think "I think we talked to her a few days ago. Why?"

"Yeah, me too" Bobby looked grim "she was going to hunt a Wendigo. It just occurred to me then that I haven't heard from her in days, and I can't get through to her phone…"

"Wendigo's don't usually live in places with a good signal" Dean tried to think optimistically, but his expression was as serious as Bobby's.

"I know that" Bobby snapped "that's why she's got a satellite phone, yer idjit."

"And you can't get through to her on that either?" Sam pulled out his phone, without waiting for a reply and asked for the number. Bobby recited it, Sam dialled and put his phone to his ear.

There was a tense few minutes as they listened to it ring, but she didn't answer. Sam looked at Dean, and Dean looked grim "do you know where it was she was hunting?"

"No idea" Bobby sighed "she's never gone missing on a hunt before, I didn't ask."

"Dammit" Dean cursed quietly. Over the last year he'd seen Elise five times at least. He'd invited to her his barbeques and parties and such with Lisa and Ben, as his relative. It kept the neighbours from asking more questions about his past if Elise was there to act as a 'cousin' and make up random lies about their childhood. Still he'd gotten the feeling that Elise was been risky, and he hadn't liked the idea but there wasn't much he could really do. Since he'd returned to hunting he'd seen her a few more times – she hadn't known Sam was back either, they'd had a drink together and mutually decided it was annoying but they couldn't blame either Sam or Bobby for keeping it secret – but she'd gone back to hunting alone.

Dean looked at Sam again and this time knew his brother was thinking along the same lines as he was. "Cas?"

Sam gave an agreeing nod "Cas."

"Yes?" the deep voice came from behind them, and the Winchesters turned to see said angel standing behind them looking a tad windswept and irritated.

"You okay?" Dean frowned a bit "you look stressed."

The angel gave him a withering look "heaven is in civil war, Dean, I believe even you would consider that stressful."

Dean turned back away and pulled a face at Bobby, muttering 'touchy'.

"Why did you call me?"

"Elise has gone on a hunt" Sam said "and we can't get in contact with her."

The angel frowned now, concerned despite his stress as he asked "what was she hunting?"

"A wendigo" Bobby answered.

"Elise doesn't go missing on hunts Cas" Dean turned back to the angel "not on Wendigo hunts either, she has this crazy pyro side… frankly its a bit scary."

Castiel tilted his head, his eyes becoming unfocused, and he said "she is alive, if that is what you are worried about?"

"That _is_ reliving-" Bobby grumbled.

"-but could you do us a favour and check up on her Cas?" Dean finished, then with a smirk he said "I mean are you going to pass up a chance to see your soul mate? And you look like you could use a break from whatever it is going on in heaven…"

Castiel's eyes narrowed as he looked at Dean, and Sam smirked when he said "Dean are you trying to persuade me?"

"Uh-"Dean hadn't anticipated the angel clicking on "-well, yeah. Is it working?"

Castiel did not reply to Dean. Instead, he vanished in a flutter of wings leaving the three hunters to decide for themselves if he had gone to find Elise or not.

Of course he had gone. He reappeared in a Montana forest in the dead of night, immediately feeling his vessel warm from the glow of a crackling fire in the middle of a small clearing. On the floor by the fire, head resting on a black canvas backpack, feet propped up against a log with her jacket pulled tight around her arms and torso, was Elise. She opened one pale blue eye at the sound of wings and focused on Castiel. "For someone who is fighting a war in heaven you're making these visits alarmingly frequent" she mumbled.

"Dean, Sam and Bobby wished for me to visit you. They said you have not contacted them on this hunt" the angel tilted his head as he considered her. She hadn't moved since he arrived, and there was something different… his eyes narrowed as he realised she was far too pale.

"Wendigo crushed my phone" she muttered, wriggling an arm out from under her jacket to show him the crushed technology.

Castiel walked to her side and crouched down with a frown, asking "Elise, are you hurt?"

She grimaced. Dammit that angel was far too perceptive… or unbelievably lucky when it came to guessing. She wouldn't be too surprised if it was a combination of both actually. "Just a nick, it'll heal on its own."

Castiel frowned at her, noticing the way she tightened herself further under the cover of her jacket, and before she could stop him he had pulled the jacket away from her exposing her wounded stomach. He really scowled when he saw her button up blouse had been practically torn in half, two large deep wounds on her belly had long stopped bleeding but where still open. She didn't look at him, both of them all too well aware that it was sheer stubbornness that had prevented her from calling him for help.

"What happened?" Castiel's voice was tight with anger, but he held a hand over her stomach and it glowed brightly as he healed her without bothering to ask her permission.

"This wendigo is a fast fucker that's what happened" she grimaced shifting uncomfortably as her tissue knitted together under his hand.

"And why did you not pray to me for help?" he took on a stern tone and expression, moving his fingers under her chin and forcing her to look at him "that wound could have killed you."

"You're fighting a _war_ Castiel, I'm not going to call you down here just to be my personal ambulance."

He finished healing her, but remained crouched beside her. "I am more than ha-"a tortured scream interrupted Castiel before he could finish what he was saying. He stood abruptly, his shoulders tense and poised like a cat ready to pounce as he looked around their dark surroundings. The scream came again, and he went to move. Elise sat up and caught his wrist before he could move away.

"Don't" she ground out, still feeling out of sorts since the angel could not heal her blood loss "it's just the wendigo, trying to lure us."

The angel looked grim "are we not easy prey, sitting out in the open by fire like this?"

"No, I drew some symbols around camp…" Elise knew she still sounded uncertain as she shifted her position to sit in a log by the fire and looked around "I don't think it can get in, I mean I'm sure I drew them right…"

She looked at him in surprise when he sat down beside her close enough she could feel the unnatural warmth that came from his body, and she noticed the grim set of his expression and the even more tousled look of his hair. It seemed that over the last year every time she saw him he was more and more stressed… "You don't have to stay. I know you probably have other responsibilities right now."

"And leave you with a creature that has already bested you once tonight?" he raised an eyebrow.

"I wouldn't say it bested me" she growled "and it wasn't tonight… I've been hunting it for three days. I got injured on the first."

"You were out here for nearly two days with an injury such as that?" he became stern again.

"Not a walking ambulance Castiel" she reminded him, looking at the dimming fire. She looked around the clearing but in the space she had marked safe there wasn't anything left she could use for kindling. She didn't dare go further than the symbols, even with Castiel around… she glanced around the darkening trees, practically feeling the Wendigo watching them. She knew it was out there for her, she was the only human – or nearly human – around unless you headed south and reached the nearest civilisation but that was well out of the Wendigo's territory. There was no one else camping out there at that time either, or at least no one who had bothered to sign the register. No she was the only prey… which was quite an unnerving thought.

"I should be hunting that thing…" she growled, making to stand, but was pulled back down onto the log by Castiel.

"Elise you would make a poor hunter at this moment. Your reactions are slow from blood loss, and you would not be able to defend yourself. Rest now."

She snorted but didn't argue. Instead she reached into her backpack and retrieved a few bits of beef jerky and some water. Beside her she didn't miss the more approving look her angelic companion gained as he watched her eat. He seemed to be happy anytime he saw her take care of herself. Elise remembered the first time he had managed to visit her after Sam had gone to the pit. It had been a few weeks, and he zapped himself into her motel room only to find her struggling with a sprained wrist. Elise had refused to let him heal such a minor injury, but he had stayed to watch her bandage herself up with hawk-like eyes. The more he visited the more often he saw her doing something to heal herself, or eating, or hell once or twice she had woken up to find him fiddling with some human object having not wanted to wake her from her sleep.

Elise tensed when she heard the trees and bushes around their little camp begin to rustle, in something that was certainly not wind, and the wendigo started mimicking the crying voice of a child. "This is going to be a really long night…" she sighed, glaring as the fire died down to just glowing embers. "That noise, and I got to admit I find wendigoes a bit scarier than demons – is that weird? – now the dying fire means we - well _me_ since it doesn't bother you – are going to freeze…"

Elise stopped speaking as suddenly the shadow of Castiel's wing – a shadow that she barely seemed to notice now, since it had become a fact of life to her – stretched out behind her far larger than she'd ever thought it was. She ignored it, until she felt a heavy weight on her back and let out a surprised gasp as soft feathers brushed along the exposed skin of her arm. "C-Castiel?" she looked over her shoulder and found that he had stretched his now corporal black feathered wing around her back. The pressure was light, until he suddenly wrapped his wing around her firmer and pushed her to his side.

She looked up at his face, barely able to see him in the dimming fire and moonlight, but could see the tender expression as he said softly "I will watch over you."

Elise couldn't help but lean against him, his wing pushing her against him anyway like a soft, warm muscled blanket. It had been many weeks since Castiel had done much more than talk with her, and in that time Elise felt she was really starting to enjoy the angel's company. She wasn't going to lie and say that apart of her still felt wrong for being friends with an angel, but slowly she felt herself getting less and less angry. Which was why now she could rest her head on his shoulder, the soft fabric of his overcoat against her cheek and give in to the tiredness of her body. Before she fell asleep however, she mumbled "you know Castiel, I'm pretty glad you turned up tonight…"

She fell asleep against him, and he stayed with her all night – one wing draped over and protecting her from the cold and the sounds of the wendigo. Castiel took the time to think, though he was occasionally distracted by the soft warmth of his soul mate beside him and felt the bubbling emotion of affection inside himself. When morning came Elise was in a far better condition to face the Wendigo – but still, he stayed by her side until the hunt was over and the wendigo nothing but a burnt crisp on the forest floor.

* * *

When several demons turn up out of the blue and try to kill you most normal people would run. A hunter fights _and_ runs, usually trying to think up some kind of crazy scheme that involves killing as many demons as possible. Elise did both, only her plan was more of a 'make the best of a bad situation' kind of plan.

Because the three demons had turned up trying to kill her, Elise had been getting ready to head to her motel for the night. They crashed her car ( _wonderful_ ) and she had to make a run for it on foot trying to find a spot that provided her a defensive and offensive advantage. Instead she ended up slipping down a tiny crevice she hadn't seen while she was running. She fell heavily and one of her legs crunched and buckled under her own weight. She let out a pained yell hand hovering over her leg and daring not to look, knowing it was broken without seeing.

Though, despite the break, the tiny space made it a lot easier to kill demons. They came at her one at a time in the narrow space and with salt, holy water and a few well-placed lunges – movement that brought tears of pain to her eyes – she slashed them with her black knife and they died...

Of course that left her with a broken leg stuck in one of earth's hidden gaps and three dead demons.

Elise looked up at the pinkish sky, it would soon be nightfall, and a bit grudgingly she called out "Castiel… I hate to ask, but I could really use some help right-"a rustle of feathers and she was no longer looking at the sky, but at the angel himself peering down at her with a frown "-now."

Another flutter of wings and he was standing beside her in the crevice. He took one look at her, his already grim expression turned twice as sour, and he pressed his fingers to her head. She felt her leg heal immediately, and when he removed his hand from her head to offer it and help her stand she took it. "Thank you" she said sincerely, leaning against the muddy wall of the crevice as the pins and needles tingle that accompanies a freshly healed leg made her muscles twitch.

He didn't react, just continued to look grim.

Elise frowned "Castiel, are you okay?"

"Elise…" he sounded like he was struggling with something, looking at his shoes, before he looked back at her pale gaze and asked "if, for your family, you had to do something they would not like… that you might not like, to protect them… would you do it?"

Elise tilted her head and considered the angel, his imploring look saying that her answer would weigh heavily on him, and she asked calmly "that depends… what would I have to do?"

He shifted uncomfortably "something they would not like, and may even view as a betrayal. Would you still do it Elise?"

"To protect my family? As in Bobby, Sam, Dean… all of you guys?"

"Yes."

"I'd do anything" she said firmly, but with a suspicious look she asked "why?"

The angel didn't reply. Suddenly there was a sound of beating wings and Elise was standing near her pretty dented car again and Castiel was nowhere to be found. She sighed at that, a bad feeling crawling up her back even as her phone began to ring and she recognised Dean's number.

Dean asked her if he had seen Castiel, and warned her not to trust him. He told her everything the angel had been suspected of doing with the demon Crowley, and by the time he finished Elise was sitting in her car again looking up at the sky as if she could see Castiel that way with a whole load of mixed feelings rolling around her chest and an equally grim expression on her face.

* * *

Elise didn't bow to the new and powerful Castiel, the one who called himself a god, and sure enough that was something he noticed. He might have flicked his gaze to her but he didn't seem to react. Maybe he could sense that the reason she hadn't reacted to him either was because she was simply frozen to the spot.

That was, until she was suddenly kidnapped by him.

They stood together in the middle of an empty meadow. Elise unfroze long enough to look around her surroundings before back to the man she wasn't entirely sure was Castiel. Unlike him she'd never been able to feel this 'bond' he talked about so often, he said when she became an angel that she would, but right then she could certainly feel something wrong with him. He was watching her with a slight head tilt, but while she had previously considered the tilting and the expression that usually came with it to be cute, she now felt the unnerving urge to step backwards.

She didn't move however, instead she lifted her chin and growled at him "take me back."

"No" he said it lazily "and you have no business ordering around your god."

She didn't dare make any sarcastic comments, though about five swirled in her head at his words, because as he said back there to Dean – this was not the Castiel they knew. This was the Castiel who had just threatened to kill his friends. So why the hell had he taken her?

He must have read her thoughts because he replied in a hard voice "You are _mine_." Then he seemed to take a breath, to control and compose himself, before he said in a more emotionless tone "you are a weakness that must be protected. You're death would still damage the soul that is mine, I would still be compelled to help you from any danger… the bond of a soul mate is certainly a controlling one. I shall have to rectify that once I am finished with everything else."

Elise felt her nerves get the better of her and let slip in a mutter "never thought I would see the day that you where the one who wanted to get rid of this bond…"

"Before I was an angel. Now I am a god, and relationships of this nature are no longer an interest."

"What _is_ your interest?"

Even as Elise spoke, angels began to appear in the meadow. First just one or two, then dozens at a time until there were too many for her to count. Elise was tense and quite with a kind of horror as the last of the angels seemed to arrive, all of them looking to Castiel, and then he spoke… and he killed them. Raphael's followers. When he was finished he turned back to her, but Elise had turned away to hide whatever expression was on her face, and eyed the tree line carefully.

"You are considering running" Castiel's voice said, bringing with it a false comfort she hadn't realised she felt around the angel until he was suddenly a threat "go ahead. You won't get far, nor will you get to Sam and Dean again."

"You're lack of belief in me is astounding. To go from the angel who believe in me, to the god who does not is quite a change I admit but I'm still not impressed. I give you a six for effort."

"You're fear of me is good. You should fear your god" then he sighed, looking up at the sky and said "but without love, respect… what is the point?"

Elise turned on him again, anger making her fists clench at her sides and she growled at him once more, momentarily forgetting that he was not the angel she was used too "you're wrong. I do not fear you. I fear _for_ you. I have always respected you Castiel, even when I hated you I respected you, and given time… yeah, maybe I could have loved you… maybe I do. But _you're not Castiel_."

With that little speech, feeling quite shaken herself, Elise walked away. She didn't look behind her until she had been swallowed by the darkness of the trees, and she saw the not-Castiel still standing in the meadow facing her, his head staring downwards at the ground. He was there for a few seconds longer, and then he vanished.

Elise felt a hot tear roll down her cheek and wiped it away furiously.

* * *

Elise growled like a cornered animal as the Leviathans approached her with sickening smiles. They'd come for her very soon after Dean called telling her what had happened to Castiel and to pass on an apology message the corrupted angel had managed to disclose to Sam before being overwhelmed by the sinister entities. Elise felt a part of her was cold and hollow without her angel around, and she couldn't help but wonder if _that_ was the bond he'd always spoken of.

She didn't have time to dwell – well, it was more like she didn't give herself the time to dwell – before she began hunting with a renewed bloodlust aiming most specifically for Leviathans, though anything else supernatural seemed to get mowed down if it stepped in her way. If only she knew how to kill the Leviathans, then she would be happy. Of course the simply beheading trick seemed to work okay, only you had to keep the head away from the body which was the tricky part. The first Leviathan she'd managed to behead, she'd buried the body then travelled to the next state and buried the head. Now unfortunately she was the one being hunted.

Running for your life you don't often get the luxury of looking at a signpost all the time, which was exactly how Elise had ended up where she was right now. On a dam, surrounded by Leviathans.

Why they were even interested in her she didn't understand and for once these bad-guys where surprisingly mute. Usually it was very hard to get the baddie to shut up – it was amazing how right comic books and movies had gotten that particular part right. The Leviathans just looked at her like she was appetizer however and didn't say a word. Then again their motives didn't really seem to her as anything more than 'eat' so perhaps that was all they wanted her for. They closed around her, making Elise take a step back and bump against the stone wall behind her, and their faces changed to show her their more bestial side.

Elise's phone began to ring in her pocket, but even as she dug it out she muttered "well aren't you just all kinds of fugly? Hello?"

"Elise?" Dean's voice "look you-"

"-I'm a bit, well, busy Dean" she looked over her shoulder at the deep grey water below the dam and back to the four advancing Leviathans.

"What's wrong?" Dean's voice became sharp. He always did know when something wasn't right.

"I might've run into some Leviathans…" Elise held the phone with her shoulder as she pulled herself up onto the stone wall of the dam "they look quite hungry and I don't see a McDonalds around."

"Elise where are you?" she heard the Impala's engine on the end of the line purr just a little more and knew Dean had slammed on the accelerator.

"It doesn't matter Dean…" she said sadly, though she fought to keep her voice brave and steady "you won't get here in time, not before they get me or I…" she looked down at the water again, and had to take a steadying breath "-look, Dean, I want you to figure out how to kick their asses okay? And promise you and Sam will look after yourselves okay? Because I really don't know what's about to happen…"

"Elise, don't you dare-"

"Hey, I'm nephilim Dean, remember?" she tried not to sound as scared as she actually felt, grinning despite the Leviathans slowly closing in on her. She chewed her lip, and then "hey, Dean? Uh… if Castiel does another resurrecting act can you pass on a message? Can you tell him… hey, whatever, if I get my wings I'll tell him myself. I'll see you on the other side Winchesters."

"Wait! Elise, don't you dare-"

"I'm sorry Dean…" it was jump or get eaten "Goodbye."

Elise hung up and the Leviathan closest to her left lunged. It let out a frustrated cry when its hands clamped around empty air where she had just been standing, looking over the edge to see her plummeting towards the dark water.


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER SIX**

Sam and Dean where well prepared hunting what Sam believed to be a Jikininki, a type of creature closely related to demons who also fed on the rotting flesh of humans and was often confused with Ghouls, from Japanese folklore. It was supposed to be a nice, slightly-less-noise-than-usual, uncomplicated hunt.

So why where they tied to posts in the middle of an old barn?

Last thing Sam remembered was telling Dean to be quiet – then pain and darkness. He threw his older brother an accusing look, and Dean twisted around to give him a sheepish kind of grin, clearly meant as a half assed apology for getting them caught.

Sam could only muttered "dude" before he realised he couldn't think of anything else to say that could correctly demonstrate his frustration with his brother.

"You still got any weapons?" Dean asked, wriggling in his bonds and no doubt giving himself a rope burn.

"No" Sam replied after a bit of wriggling himself. Not even the demon killing knife which he'd hidden up his sleeve remained on his person.

"Right. Dammit" Dean cursed "fine, it's cool. All we have to do is this Segaki ritual and the Jikininki will go, right?"

"Yeah, right" Sam replied with the same amount of false confidence he'd heard in Dean's voice.

"Wrong" a voice chuckled, and what they had first thought had been a shapeless shadow in the corner suddenly detached itself and took the form of a handsome young man of maybe his late twenties. He grinned maliciously "you can only preform the ritual if I let you."

"Yeah? Well it's gonna be hard tied up like this" Dean pulled on the rope and flashed the Jikininki a grin "so how about you untie us and we'll get about sending your ass to the pit where it belongs?"

"And leave this place? I think not."

"Why do you even _want_ to stay here?" Sam frowned.

"For the same reason that I became a monster. For money, food and women!"

Dean made a face "all nice things, but is eating rotting corpses _really_ worth it? I mean look at yourself, you're squatting in some termite ridden barn!"

The doors of said barn opened, though the brothers where not faced that way and could not see they could certainly smell what entered. "Why don't you ask my family?" the Jikininki chuckled as three more came into view dragging a bloated water-logged corpse with them. The brothers grimaced.

Dean threw Sam a look that clearly said 'more than one, not my fault' before his attention was taken by a large busted blonde female bending over in front of him, and he had a hard time not looking at her exposed cleavage. "Fresh meat?" she cooed "too bad it doesn't agree with us, this one looks _yummy_. What do we do with them?"

"Slit their throats, let them hang a few days" an older one said, smacking his lips "then, we feast."

"You're just a ghoulish Betty Crocker aren't you?" Dean muttered, and despite himself Sam smirked.

"No" the first Jikininki told his companions with a grim expression "out pack is already down five members. We must leave this place before the angel tracks us down again."

"Angel?" Sam and Dean perked up immediately, though they felt mixed responses of good and bad.

The Jikininki ignored the brothers however, muttering amongst themselves darkly as they dragged the corpse to the gut covered horse stall they'd apparently been using as a dining area.

"Andrew" the female barked at the smallest of the four "go stand guard outside."

Andrew looked like he wanted to argue, but a look from the first silenced his protest and he trooped back outside grumbling. A minute passed in which the Jikininki started to feed, filling the barn wet wet noises of tearing flesh, and the Winchesters tried their best to think of an escape. Everyone paused however when Andrew screamed outside.

"Jane, go-" the leader didn't get a chance to finish his order before the tip of a silver blade burst through his chest, killing him in a flash of crackling orange light.

Sam craned his neck to see what was happening, and Dean – unable to see anything at all – called out "what the hell is happening back there?"

Sam didn't reply to his brother, busy watching as the remaining Jikininki snarled and attacked the mystery assailant he couldn't quite see in the gloom. There was a scuffle, he caught glimpses of it but the two Jikininki soon met the same end ass their leader and no doubt Andrew outside.

Dean was still yelling, demanding that someone explain what the hell was going on behind him obviously agitated he was not only bound but blind to the action as well, desperately pulling on his bonds when a voice said "Dean Winchesters will you keep your voice down, you're going to wake the dead and lord knows that's all we need right now."

The brother's heads both snapped around, finding a person they hadn't seen in nearly two years in front of them with her arms folded across her chest looking at them both the kind of anxious excitement of a puppy who didn't know if it could run and jump on its owner or not.

"Elise?!"

 **X**

Sam, Dean and Elise where back in the boys motel room. She was lay the length of the couch with one arm on the back of it where she could rest her chin as she looked at them. The boys themselves where sitting at the table eating pizza and beer.

"So you're like a full blown angel now?" Dean asked, still unable to wrap his head around the concept.

"Yep, pretty much" she pursed her lips.

"We thought you were dead when you didn't come back…" Sam was looking at the beer bottle in his lap.

"-Yeah what's with that? If you didn't actually die when you decided to take a swan dive off a dam then where the hell have you been for the last two years?" Dean sounded a bit pissed.

Elise gave him a sharp look "sorry Dean but it took a while to, as you might say, strap on my wings. I didn't just wake up in my own body with a new set of limbs. I woke up in heaven as a wavelength of celestial intent. I didn't even know how to function myself properly, and with Castiel gone I didn't have anyone I trusted to teach me. Hell do you know how long it took to find an angel willing to teach me? Most of them hated me as much as they hate Castiel, just because I was his soul mate, I spent half the time running away!"

Dean sighed and looked apologetic as he asked "so what did you do? I mean how are you here, now?"

"Well it took some time but I eventually found this one guy willing to teach me while I was stuck in heaven. A retired cupid, named Alfred – you wouldn't believe the amount of batman jokes I pulled off without him knowing – anyway he taught me to recreate my corporal form, this body, before they came for me."

"They?" Sam frowned.

"I don't know, some angel's. I do know that they wanted me as some kind of leverage over Castiel – they were planning to bring him back from Purgatory, so I fell. I kind of hoped if they couldn't get to me they couldn't get to him."

Sam and Dean exchanged grim looked "they got to him."

"They did?" she scowled "is he okay?"

"We don't know." Dean scowled, obviously annoyed "He took off with the angel tablet and we haven't seen him since."

She scowled at the floor, tilting her head as if she could hear something before she said "I… I think he's alive. I believe that anyway. This soul mate bond thing was hard enough to function before someone blocked it…"

"So you admit he's your soul mate then?" Dean smirked, unable to not tease.

She, notably, blushed a little and didn't look at him "there's _something_ there. I didn't notice it until after the angels had deliberately blocked my connection to him. I'm still don't saying if anything between us could really work though. I still don't trust angels."

"Not even now you are one?" Sam asked.

"Especially not. I can count the amount of angel's I trust on one hand."

"Wait hang on, if you fell while Cas and I were still in Purgatory-" Dean looked at her for confirmation, and she nodded "- then what the hell have you been doing since then? It's been a few months at least!"

"Well… I was still a noob at being an angel, even with what Alfred taught me. I wandered for a bit and the ones hunting me kept finding me until I… uh, well I kind of ran into an old friend of ours who took me under his wing… literally."

Sam and Dean frowned at each other, unable to figure out who she was talking about. "Who?"

"I kind of promised him that if he helped me out we wouldn't bother him unless it was an absolute life or death situation" she gave them a stern look.

"Fine. Who?"

"Gabriel."

"Gabriel?" their eyes widened "but I thought Lucifer killed him?"

"So did I. Hell, so did he. He said he woke up on a beach in California."

"How did _you_ find him?"

"That's the even weirder part, one second I was in Alaska thinking I could really use some help getting to know the ropes of all this angel hoodoo and then suddenly I was sitting a beach chair beside Gabe in Thailand."

"Really?"

"Really. He was drinking a margarita and was as surprised as I was."

"So you've been under the trickster's tutelage for months?" Dean gave her a thoughtful look "that doesn't sound like a good thing to me…"

Elise, grinning, raised a hand and winked at him "for you? Definably not a good thing-"she clicked her fingers, and suddenly Dean's hair was pink. He didn't notice at first, not until he realised Sam had choked on his pizza from laughing. He demanded Elise turned his hair back, which she did after chancing it to blue and green first. Gabriel had been more than happy apparently to teach her those kinds of tricks.

Once the laughter stopped however, Sam looked at her quite sadly and he said "but why didn't you at least call us? Let us know you where okay…"

Elise gave him a sad look "I know Sammy, I should've. I did pop in on you, but you were having a go at a normal life again and I thought maybe this time it might work out… even after I heard you were hunting again, and that Dean was back…. There's still angel's looking for me, and I wasn't strong enough to fend them off. The only reason I'm still around is because I'm quick, and because Gabriel hid me from them."

"So you're the baby angel then?" Dean teased – he didn't look half as upset as Sam still looked, more accepting of her reasoning.

"Technically? Yes. By angel standards I'm as bad as Castiel was to us when we first met him. I know pretty much nothing about their culture and etiquette. Turns out they don't really like nephilim who choose to become angels – yeah, did you know that was actually a choice? I could have _really_ died – anyway they don't like us because we still retain a fraction of our humanity."

"Shocker" Dean rolled his eyes "what do you mean still have a fraction of humanity?"

"Well you notice I am pretty much myself, and not as emotionless as other angels seem to be?" she tilted her head "I can still get cold, and warm. I can kind of sleep, it's more like meditating really. I can still taste food, only for a moment. I can still get drunk quicker than another angel can."

"Well" Dean came over and slapped a hand to her shoulder with a grin "I'm glad you're back, even if you're all holy on us now, and I'm sure Sam is glad too."

"Of course I am!"

"See?" Dean clapped his hands together again, but hesitated "uh- you are back right? With us I mean?"

Elise smirked, getting up onto her knees on the couch and she wrapped her arms around Dean's neck pulling him into a hug. He hugged her back, cracking her spine a bit. "Of course I'm back you idiot! Team Free Will all the way, eh?"

"Amen to that coming from a runaway angel" Dean winked, offering her a beer.

* * *

Elise had a slight condition when it came back to working with the boys, one they soon enough agreed with. The condition was that they let her avoid all the hunts involving angels, fallen or otherwise. She didn't trust them, and Sam and Dean respected that. In return for letting her avoid those run in's with the feathered-kind-of-holy-persuasion she had a few chores to do – for example, Dean had her taking Sam off to places to try and get him to relax with the demon trial stuff. Both of them knew it wasn't really helping his health, but Sam did seem to enjoy it whenever she zapped him to a beach and they'd just walk barefoot in the sand talking like they hadn't talked since they were teens. Another part of the deal was if she wasn't hunting with them, she was doing another case elsewhere (this part didn't bother her much).

Still Elise felt like she was missing a lot of the hunts lately, so to do something nice as she was coming back from both a vampire hunt and a salt n' burn that had taken place in the same town she decided to stop off at a supermarket and pick up some of the guys favourite treats before she zapped herself back to the bunker.

Elise reappeared at the head of the table holding a paper bag close to her chest (she had found flying around with a paper bag to be quite dangerous, having once or twice been attacked by said bag because of the breeze her zapping created). With the way she was holding the bag Sam was the only one she could see at the table, and he glanced at her with an expression that told her she'd just walked in on something.

"You look like a dog just growled at you" she commented to Sam, putting the paper bag down "Dean, I got-"she stopped talking, staring at the other side of the table now that she could see.

She hadn't expected Castiel.

Dean, who had already looked irritated, suddenly became tense as Castiel just stared at Elise, his blue eyes wide. The older Winchester cleared his throat "uh- ahem, what did you get Elise?"

"I-uh…" she stuttered, flicking her gaze to Dean "I got some beer, better than that cheap crap you keep buying but they were out of pie… I got chips and dip though?"

Dean came around, bumping her out of the way with his hip and began to dig through the bag with a put upon sigh saying "I suppose this will have to do-" he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, squeezing once hard and making her grin "-thanks princess."

"Yeah…" her gaze flicked to Castiel again, he was still staring at her quite intently now "-I'm going to go wash up, I still smell like grave yard dirt and smoke from that salt n' burn. Went fine by the way. And the vampires… did nearly singe my eyebrows off though, standing a bit too close…" she walked off as fast as she could go without running down the hall.

It was about a second before Castiel stood, obviously intent on following. Without a word Dean pushed him forcefully back into his seat by his shoulder- then he pointed at Sam "explain to him" he demanded, shoving chips and dip in his mouth.

Sam sighed, glared at Dean and then turned a more sympathetic gaze on the obviously confused and slightly frustrated angel opposite him. "Elise has been back for a while now-"

"-she's an angel" Cas's voice sounded quite hollow with surprise.

"…yeah" Sam stopped looking at the letters for a moment and rubbed his face stressfully "look, all you need to know about _that_ was it was an accident on a hunt."

"Too become an angel she must have died" Cas said slowly.

"Yeah, look that doesn't matter Cas. What does is that she's been on the run keeping away from _us_ for the last few years because angel's where after her because of _you_."

The angel sat back in his seat looking quite horrified, he flicked his gaze to Dean but saw no chance in what he'd come to understand was his annoyed expression and he asked Sam quietly "does she hate me?"

"Does she look like she hates you?" Sam snorted "she's still avoiding most angels though Cas. She doesn't trust them."

"Good" he said it quite adamantly, earning himself a look from both brothers "there was a time the few nephilim who chose to become angels upon death would be killed as soon as they became. Some still believe like that… and some may simply wish to kill her to spite me-"

"-that's why she's running. That, plus there were a few looking for her to use her as leverage over you" Sam took in the angel's saddened expression and, unlike Dean at the moment who was still annoyed, took pity and said "she's just feeling a bit skittish Cas. She's not used to, well, being an angel."

"What should I do?"

"You're asking us for love-life advice?" Dean looked up, still annoyed by unable to contain his disbelief.

Sam sighed "look, just go talk to her okay?"

"Okay" the angel got up, following the direction Elise had gone in the bunker.

Dean looked at Sam "how do you think that'll go?"

"No idea. Hey, do we have a room 7B?"

 **X**

Elise came out of the bunkers bathroom – having had the quickest shower she could have – and quite literally walked into Castiel outside the door. She took step back, noticing she had dampened his chest, and had to rub her nose which she had bashed off his hard chest.

He looked at her curiously with a very slight tilt and he said "you do not need to shower now you are an angel?"

"I prefer to shower than just click my fingers and be clean" she informed him quietly, taking a few steps down the hall towards her room and looking behind her to see if he would follow. "It feels more refreshing. Haven't you ever tried it?"

He shook his head, falling into step beside her as she wandered to the room three away from the bathroom. Castiel paused however at the doorway of what was obviously her bedroom, watching as she continued to ruffle her dark hair with the towel to dry it. He tried not to let his gaze linger on the shadow of wings stretching from her back, darker now than they had been the last time he saw her. He blinked, curious, and switched his vision between the human one of his vessel and his true self and was able to see past her vessel to the celestial being she had become. He gaped, and completely missed what she had just said to him until she poked his shoulder with a finger and frowned at him.

"Did you just zone out? You never zone out" she teased a bit.

"You're beautiful" the angel told her sincerely, and though he ached to reach out and touch her he refrained able to sense her still skittish attitude. He was slightly concerned that if he tried to touch her, she would vanish.

"Uh… thanks" she looked down, cheeks dusting pink, and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"Elise… how did-"he looked lost for words.

"-did I end up getting my wings?" she guessed, watching as he nodded, then looked down at her feet as she said "I got cornered by some Leviathans… it was jump off the dam or be eaten and frankly one of them sounded less painful."

"E-Elise…" he stuttered.

"No – its fine" she knew what he was thinking and was quick to assure him "you didn't know about the Leviathans, and lets be fair you did do your best to contain them. But it wasn't just one inside you, it was a fair few, angel and you couldn't be expected to overpower that. It'd be like asking Dean to take on a hundred vampires with one knife. Anyway it wasn't the jump that killed me, or the Leviathans in the end… it was the uh, rather embarrassing fact that I am a very poor swimmer-" she added in a whisper looking up the hall to make sure no one was around "-and please don't tell the boys that, I'll never hear the end of it."

Despite his lingering feeling of guilt, Castiel smiled just a bit. He had missed Elsie, and her humour, even from the limited memories he had while being temporarily insane he knew he missed her then too. It had been like something was hollow in his chest. The smile slipped however when he caught glimpses of the last time he saw her – he could not remember everything that happened in that meadow, nor everything that was said, but he remembered her expression's and he seems stuck on the repeated loop of remembering what he had said to her. "Elise, I wish to apologise. Last time we saw one another-"

"-ah!" she suddenly jumped so she was right in front of him, her ice blue eyes staring at him keenly yet sternly "don't you dare. I'm willing to say you were not exactly of your right mind last time we saw each other Cas, and I'd rather just move past the whole thing…"

There was a pause, in which he was giving her his crooked boyish grin and looked awfully pleased about something.

"What?" she was starting to get a bit unnerved by his smile, she so rarely saw it.

"You called me Cas" he continued to grin "it is the first time you have shortened my name. Form my understanding nicknames are a form of terms of endearment."

"Oh…" she frowned "I didn't even notice."

Sam suddenly appeared at the door, clearing his throat "you guys able to put this on pause? We found some film in the archives."

"Are these popcorn films?" Elise sighed, knowing they weren't, and shrugging on a hooded jumper that had once been Sam's to keep the chill off herself. The bunker had many perks, but she still hadn't found where the drafts where coming from.

"Uh… I doubt it" Sam smiled at her "I live more like homemade horror films I'm betting."

"Well, I've got you're old jumper to hide in then don't I?" she flashed Sam a grin, following him out of the room. She glanced over her shoulder, giving Cas an encouraging smile as he followed.

 **X**

Dean didn't let Castiel go with them to visit the priest that had been in the film, so Elise volunteered to stay with him at the bunker. He seemed to cheer up a bit more at that, and to his credit didn't look smug when she argued to stay at the bunker after Dean asked her to go with them.

Truth be told now that she saw him again Elise didn't really want to let Castiel out of her sight. Maybe that was the overprotective urge he'd seemed to have towards her when they'd met? It was a strange feeling, to suddenly crave his company, to want to touch him, but at the same time be too afraid of her own impulses to actually do anything. Which was why the pair of them ended up sharing the window seat in the bunker's library, neither touching the other, Cas looked like he was just staring outside and Elise had promised Sam she'd go through a few more of the bunker's many files.

She was distracted though, by Cas's obvious disappointment at Dean forcing him to stay behind. After an hour of silent companionship, she put down the file (most of it was stuff about demons they already knew anyway) and she turned to the angel beside her. "Let me see your wound" she said it gently, drawing his attention back to her.

He tilted his head, but moved and untucked his white cotton shirt, undoing a few buttons from the bottom to the middle and showing her his stomach. Elise didn't touch, the wounds looked partially healed and painful, but she winced. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Castiel turned his attention back out of the window, and for a second Elise didn't think he would say anything in reply. So she was quite surprised when he told her everything, that he remembered, since they last met. She knew bits, from Sam and Dean, but getting Cas's perspective helped to round out exactly what had been happening. When he came to what happened recently, and losing the angel tablet, he seemed to tense and Elise found herself reaching out to rest a hand over his gently. He accepted her touch, but didn't turn back to her. When he was done there was a pause, and then Elise said "the price for doing what you think is right is always a steep one… usually your rational mind reasons that the bigger the price is then what you're doing must be the right thing, but that isn't always the case…"

He looked at her again, tilting his head with a slight tug of his lips "for one so young you can be quite wise Elise. I consider myself lucky that my father chose to bind our souls together."

Elise narrowed her eyes playfully "Cas, usually when people flatter others it's because they want something."

"But I was being truthful?" he frowned.

"Yeah, I know" she gave him a wistful look "but I'm not used to people giving me such compliments, so let's keep them to the minimum okay? I don't believe them anyway."

"You should, they are true."

"It's a human thing Cas, even if I'm not actually human anymore I still behave like one. I think humans tend to put themselves down a lot because if we didn't, we'd all be like those people who think they're perfect and they're the kind of people Dean actively calls dicks. I tend to agree with him."

"Ah" he looked out of the window again.

"You still upset Dean didn't let you tag along?" she guessed, giving their still bound hands a squeeze.

"I fear he is truly very upset with me this time" the angel sighed.

"Why don't you do something to apologise?" Elise suggested.

"Do something?" he looked back at her, intrigued.

"Yeah, you know how if a guy does something to upset his girlfriend he gets her flowers or some crap like that? Go get Dean some pie or something. It might not make him forgive you straight away, but I've learned it does help him calm down if he's eating… other than that, I'm afraid you'll just have to wait Dean out."

"You… you believe pie is an adequate way to give Dean my apologies?" he didn't look nor sound convinced.

"Got to know you're audience Cas" she winked "anyway I'll be boring company, I'm just resting here and doing Sam's reading for him before I head out to find another hunt. After all, what is the point of me suddenly having all these angelic abilities if I'm not using them to save people?"

His gaze became sharp suddenly, and through their slightly worn bond he got a harsh stab of her current emotions, as soon as it was there it was gone but it was enough. "Elise… are you hiding something?"

"All the time sweetie" she told him "now, go get- actually, wait-"she moved suddenly, letting go of his hand and shuffling towards him on the seat. She paused, looking a little awkward herself before she reached out gently and put her arms around his neck in a soft hug. Cas's response was almost immediate as he brought his arms around her just as gently, all too aware of his injuries still, and both of them felt the elastic snap in their heads as the bond between them became more solid. "-there, I missed you. Idiot. _Now_ you can go get Dean an apology pie."

Before she could pull away completely, Cas pressed a soft kiss to her temple and muttered softly that he'd missed her too. Elise was still blushing when there was a flutter of wings and the angel beside her was gone.

* * *

Elise had been babysitting Sam and Crowley as they attempted to complete the final demon trial. She'd felt awkward being there, on the edge of her feet despite the fact she could do nothing to help, and more than anything she kept wanting to pop in on Cas and Dean. Hell, she was willing to go pop up to heaven and see what the frick was going on there. Crowley was being weird too, apparently the king of hell had finally thought of a nickname for her too – with Sam being moose – she was now 'bird'. She'd told him it was very creative with a not subtle at all roll of her eyes.

And then Dean had come demanding they stop the trials. Again Elise watched helplessly as Dean could only hold Sam as the trails took their effect knowing that even as an angel, she didn't have the ability to heal his pain…

She was the first of them to notice the lights. She felt it before she saw it, like a thunderstorm rolling in, and looked up at the sky with a pounding heart as the angels began to fall. Her first thought was Cas, so she was thankful when through their bond she could detect he was indeed still alive – though poking the bond also brought her pain, and an unusually dull energy signal for him. She didn't have a long time to dwell on it, as the first angel touched down somewhere near them, Elise doubted over in pain behind the Impala where the boys couldn't see her. She didn't understand what was happening, but her body felt like it was on fire, and she couldn't tell if it was her own pain or Castiel's. It could have been both. The pain wracked her very bones, and then spread up her shoulder blades and into the wings hidden from view on earth. The pain was agonizingly worse in one wing, she felt the muscles tense and spasm, and couldn't hold back her cry.

"Elise?" Dean called out, concerned.

"I'm fine-"she ground out, the pain quickly subsiding to a throb, looking up once again and the falling angels. She edged around the car still in a crouch from her pulsing stomach, until she was on the other side of a fallen Sam. "-we need to get Sam out of here."

* * *

Elise stood in Sam's hospital room – under the guise of his sister – and tilted her head able to hear Dean's prayer. She didn't approve, but then maybe not all the angels where dicks. Maybe one would help them, one stronger than her. Hell, maybe it would draw Cas to them… lord knows neither her prayers nor Deans had.

She was leaning on the wall uncomfortably, her entire body still shivered with the pain that had come to her when the angels fell, and at her back she could feel her wings tremble in response. One of them would not draw to her back properly, and she was quite concerned about that. No doubt if she had to zap anywhere she would either find that she couldn't or that it would be extremely painful.

Dean came back shortly, and he nodded to her. "You want coffee?" he asked sounding grim. She wondered if he even remembered she was angel, and that she had heard his prayer.

"No… I'm going to get some fresh air. I'll be at the car, okay" she gave him a shaky smile, but knew her eyes where sad. He nodded, understanding, and watched as she brushed a hand over Sam's head. She could feel his pain just from that simple touch and wished once more that she was stronger.

She hadn't told Dean about her pain. He knew something was wrong, she was walking stiff and favouring the side with her more damaged wing, but with Sam as he was this wasn't the time to bring her own condition into the mix. No, she'd find some painkillers to swipe no doubt and make do as she was for now. Outside she leaned on the Impala and looked up at the sky. A thud, and she remembered Crowley was in the trunk. At least that gave her something to smirk about.

Until she felt the other angel. She moved, just a hair's distance between her now and the angel blade that had been about to embed in her back. She turned on the new angel with a glare, finding a middle aged woman with greying hair. "Only cowards try to stab someone in the back" Elise growled, mostly from her own pain and anger.

The angel just pulled a disgusted face "a nephilim like you should have been killed before she could ever become one of us."

"You didn't get to make that call sister" Elise growled once more, hand reached behind her for her own angel blade.

"No, I know _exactly_ who let you live. Killing Castiel's soul mate will be a good way to send him a message before I bury my blade in his heart too!" the angel lunged once more, and this time Elise parried her blow, moved in close and held her blade against the angel's throat. She froze.

"Elise!" Dean's voice called out.

The angel moved again, only just managing to get Elise's grip on her wrist loose. Elise didn't waste any more times and she stabbed the angel, her eyes and mouth glowing with white light as she died. Dean grabbed the woman's body before she could fall and hit the ground. "Dammit, not what we needed" he growled.

Elise looked around "behind the dumpster" she grabbed the woman's legs and helped to carry her around. "I'm sorry Dean."

"What the hell was this about?"

"Payback. Dean they're out for Cas… look I can't stay here, I'll lead whichever ones have caught my tail away from you and Sam okay? Hopefully that means only the good ones will come for your prayer – yeah, I heard – look I'll meet you at the bunker when I get away okay?"

Dean looked grim but grabbed her arm before she could turn away "be careful" he warned her "I…" he looked away.

"I'll be fine Deano" she nicknamed him affectionately "I'll find a phone and call you tonight. Or in the morning. Just watch over Sam… and please if you hear from Cas tell him not to trust the angels, for the love of all things holy!"

"I'll try" Dean assured her, pressing a brief kiss to her forehead before he turned away to head back to the car "if you don't call me I'll track you down, you hear me?" he called after her in complete seriousness.

"I don't doubt it Dean" she called back with a grin, but when she turned away her expression became grim.


	7. Chapter 7

_The fic becomes slightly AU here, with the fact Castiel does not meet April but rather is successful finding the bunker himself after Dean told him too. Because no one wants to make Cas' relive April trying to stab him._

* * *

 **CHAPTER SEVEN**

Castiel couldn't stay at the bunker. Elise had accidentally zapped into the bunker – painfully she might add with the condition of her wings – while Dean was having this conversation with poor human Cas who'd only just made in to the bunker in one piece. At first she'd been quite outraged with Dean, silencing Castiel's attempt to calm her with his acceptance of Dean kicking him out, but then she'd seen Dean's expression. She knew that look, he didn't want to do this – but something was making him do it. Without a doubt the bigger brother had done something stupid again, something that would likely come back to bite their asses. With a sigh Elise accepted that Castiel had to leave the bunker – and she left with him.

All the supplies Dean could give them where piles in the back seat of Elise's old car, with Cas in the passenger seat staring out of the window with a solemn look and Elise driving. They were silent. She'd tried to broach conversation but had been met with short answers of no more than five words, so she quickly got the message that Cas didn't feel like talking.

Elise had been tapping her hands on the steering wheel in time with the music when the song switched and the Black Veil Brides 'fallen angels' started to blare. Elise threw the stereo a look and grimaced "well, that's just in ironic bad taste" and she shut it off, plunging them into pure silence.

They came to a motel and she flicked a look at Castiel, but he was still looking out of the window. It was starting to rain, so she decided to pull over and they could stop for the night. It was far from the bunker, and she never did like to drive at night in the rain. Castiel didn't even to notice they had stopped, not even when Elise got out of the car and went to pay for a room. She came back and he was still in the same position. She walked out into the rain, getting thoroughly soaked as it lashed down hard enough to sting, with a grim expression. How do you cheer up an ex-angel?

She opened Castiel's door for him and he finally looked up at her. From the frown that formed she was making a good guess that he hadn't even noticed she was gone, let alone that it was raining. Elise crouched down, ignoring the drips of rain now running off the end of her nose, and gave him a small encouraging smile "it'll be okay Cas" she said resting one of her now very chilly hands on his knee "I'm sure Dean had a reason for kicking you out. He's not the kind of guy to turn a friend out in the cold without a reason, especially not someone he counts more as family than just a friend. It's nothing you did, I promise you."

He didn't really look like he believed her as his deep blue eyes searched her icy ones but he nodded and that was the most reaction she'd gotten out of him in a few hours so Elise decided that was progress. "Good, now grab that green duffle bag and haul tail before we drown."

They made it to the motel room with Castiel only getting marginally wet. Elise was so wet the first thing she did was go to the bathroom and start to rub her hair dry with a towel. When she was no longer dripping (aside from her clothes) she found Castiel sitting on the queen sized bed still looking forlorn. Not the kind of depression a pep talk could get him out of? Okay, she sighed, time to distract him instead. She reached into the duffle back and pulled out a canister of salt. "Hey-" she made sure he saw she was about to throw the salt and passed him the can "-salt the doors and windows while I draw protection sigil's" she told him kindly, retrieving a pack of chalk from the bag also.

He did as she asked wordlessly. She bit her lip, drawing on the walls, and asked him quietly "hey Cas, do you ever wonder how Dean, Sam and I choose our rooms at the motels?"

He paused, she saw it in the reflection of the television, before he said "no. It has never occurred to me that there was a reason."

"Well it's something you're going to want to learn" she said "it's strategic. We choose our rooms by either the advantage of escape routes or how fast we will notice a big bad has found us. Sometimes both. This room for instance is right on the end, and has the advantage of a window more extra compared to the other rooms where if we needed to we could climb out of. There's also that big vent up there in the wall that someone could hide in, though I didn't know about that till getting in the room. That's a nice bonus. But this room also has a view of the entire parking lot and the gas station across the street so we can see if anyone is lurking."

"Yes, I see" Cas mumbled from the window as he drew a line of salt on the ledge but looked up, noticing even in the rain the lights of the motel and the gas station allowed him to see quite far. He turned, and noticed her drawing angel sigil's "Will those not hurt you?" he asked, knowing she still had quite a bit of grace left, perhaps more so than the other angels did.

"I feel weaker but not hurt" she replied as she finished "not that it bothers me much. I'm not as strong as the other angels when they're running on a full tank of gas. That doesn't bother me either."

"A lot of things do not seem to bother you" he commented, actually sounding amused. Elise looked over her shoulder at him and saw his lips had indeed tugged into a slight smile.

"What can I say?" she said, jumping off the bed where she had stood to reach the wall better "I'm a bit of an optimist. Dean hates it, he says there can't always be a good side to everything. What do you think?"

Cas tilted his head and looked into the distance as if considering, and finally he nodded "yes, I believe you are right and Dean is wrong. I am beginning to realise there is even a good side to our current situation."

"Yeah?" she smiled "what's that then?"

He raised an eyebrow at her "I shall tell you later. First we must get you out of those clothes."

Elise smirked "down boy!" she said, though knew he probably hadn't meant it how it sounded.

Castiel frowned and sat down and she almost burst out laughing, just barely able to keep herself from grinning, even as an understanding look seemed to grace his features "oh, you believed I was insinuating-? I simply meant that your clothes are exceptionally wet from the rain and no doubt are making you very cold. With so little angelic power left in your body it is plausible that you are susceptible to human illness and I would rather you did not get sick."

Elise looked down at her clothes and realised that he was indeed right, not a patch seemed to have been spared by the rain. Another root around in the duffle bag saw her finding a pair of cotton shorts (they had once been sweat pants until she took a pair of scissors to the legs) and a tank top. She disappeared into the bathroom to change and when she reappeared Castiel had also changed into a pair of what must've been Dean's old sweat pants. They sat surprisingly low on his hips, and Elise was actually slightly concerned they might fall down completely if he tried to run.

"Are you hungry?" she asked him as she smothered a yawn with her hand.

"No, I am just tired" he replied softly.

"Wanna just go to bed?"

"But there is only one…" he trailed off, looking at her with a tilt of his head.

"What?" she grinned "you're not one of those people who refuse to even share a bed with the opposite sex unless you're married are you? Because I'm not sleeping on the floor and neither are you. It'll be fine. I've shared with Dean and Sam before."

His expression suddenly turned sharp and, surprisingly, jealous as he asked "when was this?"

"Oh well" she folded her arms in amusement looking at the ceiling as if trying to remember "let me see, there was a few times when we were kids, and then when we were teens – Dean was particularly hands-on back then – and as adults there's been a fair hundred dozen times or so. Last month for instance-"

"-stop" Cas's voice was hard, growly, and she instantly shut up to look at his glowering eyes "I do not want to hear that you have shared beds with another man again, do you understand?"

"Jealous?"

"Yes" he replied honestly, still glaring.

"Hmm, well I can't promise anything" she teased, getting under the blanket herself and turning off the lamp, plunging them into darkness.

It was barely a few seconds after she turned off the light that she felt the bed dip beside her as Castiel shuffled to join her under the covers. She thought he would be awkward and stiff so she was lay on her side, right on the edge of the bed, to give him enough room to be comfortable. Which was why she let out a surprised squeak as his hand snaked over her side to lie flat against her belly and drag her back against him in the middle of the bed. He growled, so close to her ear that his lips brushed her skin delicately, "no more sharing beds Elise, unless it is with me, understand?"

"Yeah, okay" she mumbled back into her pillow, trying to hide a grin. Still he seemed satisfied with this answer, and this position if the way he snuggled his face into her hair was any indication. Since he seemed disinclined to move she made herself comfortable and soon fell asleep in his protective embrace.

 **X**

Elise woke slowly, the room still dark as it was well before dawn, and became aware of movement on the exposed skin of her thigh. She kept her breathing shallow as she realised it must have been Castiel, and that he must also be awake, just savouring the feeling of being relaxed. Her legs where tangled in Cas's, one of his between hers, no doubt she'd done that at some point in an attempt to warm her toes which were always in a constant state of cold no matter if she had socks on or not, and she could feel Cas's breath steady and warm on the exposed skin of her shoulder. She was still paying more attention to his finger drawing patterns on her leg, right up until she realised what it was he was drawing.

He was drawing his name on her skin, in Enochian. She'd become adept in the language since their trip to the temple searching for god, though reading it hadn't really become easy until she'd become an angel. She smirked when she realised what he was drawing, and couldn't contain the chuckle which obviously made him freeze.

"You're like a kid marking his favourite ball, drawing you're name on me like that"

"You knew what I was-"he sounded quite embarrassed as Elise turned over so she was facing him.

She gave him a light smile "don't worry. I don't mind. Just don't go around tattooing it on me or something."

"My name is already tattooed on you Elise, as yours is tattooed on me."

"What?"

He took her hand and rested it palm flat against his chest, holding it gently in place so she could feel the thud of his heart beat. "Soul mates Elise" he reminded her softly "your name is tattooed on my heart like mine is on yours."

"Don't ever let Dean hear you talk like that, it's really cheesy." Elise smiled gently, but it soon slipped from her face and she had to shift a bit to feel more comfortable, the ache of her shoulders getting worse.

Castiel noticed her discomfort and frowned "are you okay?"

"Yeah it's just my – eh – wings. Something happened when heaven was shut, and they've hurt ever since."

"And you are only just telling me now?" Castiel sat up abruptly looking horrified "Elise your wings are delicate, a part of your celestial form that you must care for, any pain or discomfort you are feeling should be immediately seen too!"

"I just figured I pulled a muscle… I mean that's what it feels like" she frowned, propping herself up on her elbows to watch him. He was looking at her like she was seven kinds of crazy. "Also, I am totally new to this wing thing. You're brother wasn't really interested in teaching me that side of being an angel. Just essential survival techniques really."

He ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it even more, and looked stressed "Elise would you allow me to take a look at your wings? It is a personal thing, but I would rather make sure there is no lasting damage to you."

"Person-"she stopped, thinking this probably wasn't a time for questions "-uh, sure you can look…"

She waited until Castiel had moved from beside her, and then when he gave her a go-ahead nod while turning on the bedside lamp Elise allowed her wings to become visible. Castiel watched mesmerized. The only times angels saw each other's wings was as mated pairs, or in threat. It was personal, Cas could count on one hand the amount of people who had seen his wings and only one of them survived – Elise. He knew she didn't know anything of angel's etiquette, but he couldn't help feeling pleased that she trusted him enough not only to see her wings but to see them while she was obviously injured too.

Her wings, being female, where much smaller than his but they were as onyx black as his where. The difference was that the tips on her feathers where a deep red, crimson as blood. One of her wings flapped slightly, stretching out a bit, but the other just twitched and remained pulled in to her body. The feathers on said wing where askew and mess, and coated with a sticky substance he quickly guessed to be blood. Cas's hand hovered over the wing, and he scowled to see the injuries.

"I'm sorry…" he muttered harshly.

"Why?" she frowned, peering at him.

"If I hadn't…"

"Don't start" she growled at him feral like with a hard stare "you didn't know. Not your fault. It's Metatron's fault, and we _will_ kick his ass just like every other bad guy we come across."

Castiel didn't feel nearly as confident about that as Elise was, but he didn't say anything. He began to examine her most injured wing, and found a small gash among the feathers – the source of all the blood apparently – and felt the tension of the muscle. "How did it feel, when this happened?" he asked softly, going to the bathroom to get a damp cloth so he could clean the blood.

"It burned… the muscles went very tight, like a stitch…" she muttered, watching him as he came back.

He nodded, and started to wash the blood away. Beneath him Elise buried her face in the pillow. She had never considered what it would feel like to have her wings touched, in fact she'd never really considered anything about her wings, but if she knew how _good_ it felt than maybe she'd have had someone do this sooner. It felt like… like those first few moments of sex, touching and exploring trying to memorise the other person or have them memorise you. An involuntary sigh left Elise and she buried her face in the pillow even further.

"There is a cut" Castiel told her, only too aware of her reaction. "It has begun to heal but you are lucky there is no apparent lasting damage."

"Why do they hurt then?" her voice was significantly muffled by the pillow, but he could understand her words.

"Locked muscles" he explained "as I said, wings are delicate. Locked muscles in them are not so easily rid of as the muscles of your human form. I am going to start massaging the muscle, okay? This should help to relax the muscle somewhat, but only time will fix it completely. You really are lucky you know, and flying around with this! Honestly you are like a fledgling…"

"Say's the man who had issues with a toaster just a few days ago…" she muttered into the pillow.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, I just say 'okay that's fine'" she gave him a sweet smile, an expression that turned into one of relaxed bliss as his hand suddenly started working on the muscle of her wing. She moaned, bit her lip at the noise and went back to burying her face in the pillow.

"Did that hurt?" Castiel hesitated after her moan, but saw her shake her head. She looked quite amusing to him. He continued to work along the muscle of her wing.

What he was doing certainly worked. She felt her wing relax under his touch and started stretching out more. Cas noticed this too with a slightly smug look and as he massaged with one hand he started to right her skewed feathers with the other. With earth gentle tug a fresh wave of itchy pleasure swept through Elise, but she kept her no doubt breathless face buried in the pillow, clutching the cotton fabric of the bed sheet. Cas noticed that too and this time didn't pause as he asked "does this hurt?"

"Hell no" she lifted her head long enough to say, and whimpered as his hands closed expertly on the largest muscle at the joint of her wing, massaging it until it relaxed and unlocked allowing the wing to stretch completely, the tips of her feathers curling slightly as they touched the walls of the motel. She panted as he moved back down the wing, heat washing her entire body and sending chills up and down her spine.

Both of them had been so enraptured with what they were doing they didn't notice the effect they were having on their surroundings. Not until Cas's warm hand had reached the fluffier feathers of her wing where they came from her shoulder blades, and Elise gasped again – the bulb of the lamp on the bedside burst suddenly. Elise jumped so badly away from the 'pop' that she ended up kneeling at the base of the bed with her wings half outstretched like a threatened bird, a dagger in her hand. Cas just frowned at the surge of adrenaline in his body – where human bodies in a constant state in which they were ready to produce excessive amounts of adrenaline?

Elise stared at the glass on the floor "did I cause that?" she asked a little sheepishly.

"Indeed it is likely" Castiel nodded "we should be more careful, other angels will be able to detect you're grace."

"Mind the glass" she warned when she noticed him moving around with bare feet "don't worry Cas, if angel's notice us then we'll run like greyhounds on the track."

He sighed, sitting down on the bed beside her and staring at his clasped hands "is this how we are destined to live now until we can find a way to reverse what Metatron had done? To constantly be running and hiding?"

"Course not" Elise frowned at him "I thought our next actions would be obvious."

He gave her a blank look.

"We hunt together Cas" she gave him her kindest smile "god knows you probably have some angry steam to blow off, and there's nothing like ganking an evil son of a bitch to get rid of that negative energy. And that's a part of what angels are supposed to do, isn't it? Save people, protect the humans, all that spiel? Never know. If we lead by example the few angels out there who don't wanna kill us might try protecting the humans too."

"Do you really believe that?" he gave her a doubtful look.

"Really?" she asked "No, I was just trying to make you feel better. I think it's still going to take more than this to get the others to understand free will. They're so used to orders. And the ones who do have free will, hell even the ones like me…" she trailed off without finishing.

Cas frowned, as he hadn't been aware that other angels like her – nephilim who became angels – still existed "you have met others like you?"

Her expression darkened "just one. I don't want to talk about it, so let's just forget it" her tone was dead and lazy as she looked away from him – behind her, her wings started to fade and vanish again but certainly felt much better. "You know what we should do?" she looked at him now. He tilted his head. "We should look for a job."

 **XXX**

There was a house, Sammy gave Elise the heads up, in Dakota that was one of _those_ houses. Haunted for only a limited time, every year. Every year some stupid kids get the great idea to stay in the house after hearing the legends and they never come out again. This year Elise and Castiel were heading up there to take care of it.

The legend was that in 1776 the Eldritch house had been a hotel of sorts, no doubt for its lakeside views, but on the evening Morris Eldritch found out his wife had been cheating with multiple partners he went completely insane – already having been quite crazy from what Elise could sus out, since he reportedly never left the house at all – and took an axe not only to his wife but all six guests in the house. That was he report anyway, since no bodies where ever found, and Eldritch shot himself in the lounge.

Castiel was actually the one who found all this, Elise and Sam where both impressed. He might have become human, but he hadn't lost his – as Dean called them – dorky, nerdy, abilities.

In honesty Cas was becoming a very good hunter, even if he wasn't an angel anymore. It seemed her technique of throwing himself into the work was doing its job and keeping his mind of heaven's situation at least for now. She didn't tell him, but once or twice when she'd made them move it was because she sensed an angel on their tail. He probably knew that, but they didn't discuss it. She shook her head of her thoughts when she saw Castiel shouldering his own duffle back and looking at her ready to hunt. They had decided – after he thoroughly checked her wings, though not enough to have a repeat of the light bulb incident – that she would fly them to the house. Far easier than climbing the locked chain fence.

"You got everything?" she asked with a teasing tone.

"Yes" he replied with a raise of his eyebrow. That was usually his reaction when she teased him at odd times, to just look at her with something akin to curiosity and amusement.

"You sure? Guns, salt, extra rounds, something made of iron?" she was turned away from him and shouldering her own bag, full of similar items.

He stepped closer to her so he almost towered over her "yes, Elise, I have everything we shall need for this hunt."

She turned around, so close that their noses brushed together "just checking, angel" she muttered, before she grabbed him by the arm and they flew off to the Eldritch house.

They were in the dark and gloomy corridor for all of five seconds before Castiel's eyes widened and he shoved Elise to the side in time to avoid having her head swiped off by an iron poker as someone let out a startled yell. She recognised the yell and turned around to face the other people, keeping Castiel behind her knowing he'd make a move to protect her. "Hey!" she yelled "totally not dead over here!"

There was a light shining in her eyes that made it hard to see, and that light was atop a small hand held camera that filmed them. Still she could just make out the faces that she knew. "Aren't you guys the… what's it, Ghostfacers? Ed and Harry right?" She asked as Castiel's grip on her arms remained tense.

"Wait…" the dark haired one moved the camera so the light wasn't in her eyes and frowned "Ed… is that, that's that girl the one who was with those Winchester douche-bags."

"I resent you calling my family douche-bags" Castiel muttered.

"Oh yeah" Harry sounded a bit annoyed "what was her name?"

"It's Elise, you know if you want to do well with girls it helps to remember their names?" she rolled her eyes and folded her arms "especially after they save your life."

"Whoa!" Harry seemed to look past Elise and see Cas for the first time, and immediately he took a step backwards "your- Ed, he's that, that angel!"

Elise looked at Cas over her shoulder "you've met these guys?"

"Yes."

"Look-"Harry gave them his best authoritative tone "-this is _our_ haunted house, so you guys can just make like a tree, and leave. Even if you do have an…angel."

Elise raised an eyebrow "still not the sharpest hunter in the tool kit are you? We're not leaving either. But please feel free to continue filming and scream if the ghost tries to get you."

Elise span on her heel and began to walk down the corridor. She didn't actually know where she was going, but she assumed that eventually she'd find stairs. Castiel followed shortly, and the pair of them heard muttering before running footsteps. "Wait, wait, wait, wait" Ed caught up to them "last time we got trapped in a house with you people our intern died."

"So we figure we're better off…" Harry trailed off, obviously not happy "-but Ed and I, we call the shots."

"Uh… sure" Elise's voice was thick with sarcasm – she caught Cas's curious eye and winked – but she followed Ed and Harry to where they'd set up a 'base camp'. They had a few hours to wait until the hauntings usually begin, and Elise figured this would be a good time to make sure this room at least was salted, protected, and that no other ghost hunter wannabe's got in. "So what happened to the rest of your team? They didn't…" she trailed off, asking the Ghostfacers.

"Dead? No" Harry replied, but didn't seem keen to elaborate further or even look up from his laptop.

Ed was in the corner, texting with a cheesy grin on his face. "Girlfriend?" Elise guessed as she sat on the arm of a mouldy chair and nodded at Ed.

"Yeah" he muttered kind of shyly, yet proudly. He noticed Castiel watching him with a curious look and a tilt of his head and scowled. "If he's supposed to be an angel what's he doing hunting ghosts?"

Elise watched as Castiel ducked his head sadly, but she couldn't blame Ed for accidentally rubbing salt in the wound. "He's human now" she explained in a gentle voice, then after a silent second she said "hey Cas, why did you visit these guys in the first place?"

"They were mentioned in Chuck's chronicles" he said simply.

"We have the footage" Harry jumped in suddenly, leaning forward on his laptop obviously searching. A bit eager Elise came over and leaned on Harry a bit – earning her an annoyed glance from him that she ignored – and she giggled almost immediately at the beginning of the video. Cas was just so… well, Cas. She laughed merrily at the footage of the Ghostfacers trying to get away from the angel, only to have him pop up at each door they opened.

She gasped when he shattered a picture frame to demonstrate his 'minor miracle' "I can't believe you smashed a signed photo of Shatner" she laughed out loud, and beside her Harry made an indignant exclamation of agreement. She then looked at Cas, who was watching her with a blank expression "why didn't you just show off your wings, you know like you did for Dean when you guys first met?"

"He said we were too dull to see them" Ed grumbled, kicking the dusty floor.

"The physical wing, yeah, I'm on about the shadow thing?" she tilted her head at Cas.

"It did not occur to me" he shrugged, then looked at her "why do you not try it, since they are still sceptical of angel's existence?"

"Wait" Harry got up, putting the laptop down on the only intact table " _she's_ an angel too?"

"Have been for like three years now" she shrugged like it was no big deal "before that, last time I saw you guys, I was just a nephilim."

"A _what_?"

"Nephilim" Castiel answered "humans with grace who can become angels upon death should they choose."

"So you… died and came back as an angel?"

"You say 'came back' like it's shocking. You have met Sam and Dean right?" she raised a sceptical eyebrow, and in the corner of her eye she saw Castiel grin.

"They do have an alarming inability to stay dead" he said, sound amused.

Elise took a chance to tease him "you can talk, you literally raised them both out of hell."

"Indeed I have a role in their resurrections" he dipped his head.

Harry at this point had folded his arms and exchanged a look with Ed who stood in a similar position – his hand closed around his phone however no doubt waiting for his girlfriend to text back. "I think you're having us" he said flatly.

"Sure you do" Elise shrugged – if she was them she'd probably believe that too. She prepared to show the shadow of her wings, and realised she didn't actually know how to do that. She thought for a second and figured it would be similar to when she exposed them, and tried to will the shadows to show themselves.

Seconds later Cas was standing protectively in front of her with a scowl and she realised she'd obviously made a mistake. "What'd I do?" she asked, startled.

"You have shown your physical wings" he scowled at her "to other males. While injured I might add."

"Heh… whoops" she gave him her most sheepish look, he remained scowling, and she looked around him at Harry and Ed's faces.

When one of them tried to lift that camera, she clicked her fingers and the camera vanished.

 **X**

The ghost who haunted the guest house turned out not to be Morris Eldritch. It turned out that Morris had not been the one to take an axe himself and the guests either, it was his wife. She really was insane, and after she killed the guests, throwing the bodies into a pit in the basement, she'd jumped in too effectively killing herself. Her husband had shot himself from grief. Unfortunately said basement pit was proving difficult to get too – between ghostly locked doors, and Harry and Ed jumping like jack rabbits (she'd took the guns off them, and given them salt and iron pokers instead) and the ghost literally trying to bring the house down on them Elise was having trouble. Still she managed to throw salt and gasoline down the pit – just as the ghost loosened a support beam from the roof. It swung down about to land on her when she was tackled from the side and chucked across the room.

"Cas!" she screamed his name when she saw him get tossed away from her by invisible hands and hit the wall with a meaty thud. He didn't get back up again. "Alright bitch, time to burn" Elise hissed, bringing out a pack of matches. She struck it, lighting it on the first draw, and dropped it into the pit. The dark bottom suddenly erupted in fire, illuminating a small pile of bones and mould, and the ghost disappeared with agonizing yells.

"Cas! She called his name again as she ran over to him. He was blinking awake thank god but she still skidded to a stop, practically in his lap, and cupped his face in her hands checking him for injury. "God don't you dare scare me like that again!" she admonished, moving her hands down to grab the front of his hooded shirt and drag him towards her.

"I am fine" he said, trying to give her a smile. She wasn't in a position where she could see his expression however.

She was peppering kisses over his face "you-" she kissed his head "-scared-" his cheek "-the-" his other cheek "-living-" his nose "-crap-" his chin "-out-" his jaw "-of-" the other side of his jaw "-me!" she finally pressed a kiss to his lips, but before she could pull away Cas's hand was in her hair keeping her right where she was with a firm grip as he deepened the kiss, nibbling her lip and giving a demanding nip when she refused to open for him. He gave a satisfied hum when submitted, opening to him, and his tongue plunged in to taste her.

"Get a room" the voice of Harry alerted them to the fact they were not alone, and Elise looked up to find them with another camera pointed at them.

"How many of those things do you have?" she growled, having already destroyed two.

"Big supply."

"The ghost might be gone but we got another problem. She brought down enough of the house that she's sealed us in too."

Elsie sighed, standing up from Castiel's lap, and she offered him a hand to help him stand too. They exchanged a look, clasped their hands together and Elise grabbed Ed while Cas grabbed Harry. One ground lurching second later and they were standing outside where the house used to be. Ed and Harry gaped, looking around, at each other, then Elise.

"Thank you for travelling air Elise, I hope you enjoyed you're flight. We've got to be getting off now, I promised Dean boy we'd call him when we were done, but you boys take care now ya' hear?" she winked at the Ghostfacers, she couldn't wait to tell Dean about running into them, before she and Castiel vanished once more.

They reappeared in the same motel room as before they left. From the way Castiel's arms suddenly encircled her waist Elise had the good idea that he wanted to continued their kiss from the basement, and at first she was all for continuing more than curious to where this would lead – until she saw the shadow behind Cas. She shoved him out of the way, ready to confront the unknown entity. She froze however when she saw a face, and familiar cold green eyes. Which was long enough apparently for the shadow to lunge forwards, grabbing her and vanishing with a flutter of wings.

Castiel called her name "Elise!" and tried to lunge forward and grab either of them but was too late. His hand closed around empty air, leaving him alone.


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

Castiel sat in the bunker, eyes closed and a scowl on his face trying to locate Elise. Sam and Dean, working separately at the moment, where nowhere around. Dean had heard something of what could possibly be an old friend and had gone to check it out, leaving the angel alone with his thoughts.

And his thoughts where quite dark.

Why where they not searching for his soul mate? Why was she considered unimportant with everything else going on? Dean had actually been quite afraid Castiel would hit him when he'd tried to calm the angel down and explain that other things mattered at that moment, and reminded Cas he could feel that Elise was alive still so whoever took her likely needed her for something. The Winchesters had also reminded Castiel that Elise was far stronger than she looked, her iron will reinforced by plain stubbornness.

It didn't comfort him, but he acknowledged that right then he had another thing to focus on no matter how against instinct it went to ignore the fact his mate was in danger.

Now that he had his grace back – well, not _his_ grace – and a moment of free time he was determined to find her.

Mostly because the way she had been ripped from him so suddenly had made him realise something. That he loved her. He loved Elise.

Just being soul mates did not guarantee that they should feel anything for one another as respective people. Example being the way Elise hated him when they first met – though she did explain that it wasn't _him_ she hated, but what he _was_. In response Castiel admitted that while he was curious, intrigued, with Elsie when they met but he didn't immediately love her.

He had been too surprised. She was so young, and more than that she was a nephilim. He'd always assumed his soul mate would be another angel- that was how it usually went. He still remembered how she looked when he first laid eyes on her. Admittedly she was rather spooked, guarded, at the time so it was probably not the greatest first impression. He remembered the first thing he noticed was her eyes, the way they had widened and turned hard reminding him on the pure ice that had blanketed parts of the earth during the ice age. The second thing he had noticed was the shadow of wings behind her, not a complete shadow that angels had but a weak one of a nephilim, the way they had raised and fluffed a little when she'd realised what he was and gotten angry.

After that initial meeting he'd spent many hours watching her. He had to do so from afar, since she could sense him even when he was not visible to human eyes, but he couldn't help it. Before he had realised Uriel's betrayal he had discussed it with the other angel, who had understood Castiel's instinctual urges but had been sorely disappointed that his friend's soul mate was a lesser being. Still, the more he watched her the more he became aware of her bravery, her kindness, her capacity to love and laugh in a world of monsters that she lived in. She only proved her true less hateful nature when he began to seek her company, asking about trivial human things he didn't quite understand (like why did the phone want to know his name?) and she explained patiently, if a little sharply.

He didn't know when it was he had begun to love her. But he was sure it had happened over the last few years… if only it had not taken her kidnapping to realise it. Then he could have told her, asked her if she felt the same, and cemented the bond between them so that he could find her now…

 **X**

Elise lay in the dark warehouse, the only light coming from the ring of holy fire around her, and did not move when she heard footsteps. She knew who it was, and didn't much care to look at him.

"I know you're not asleep" he said calmly, walking around the circle of fire until he could crouch down and look at her.

"Piss off Jason" she hissed, moving so she wouldn't have to look at him.

"Such language, and I remember you being the good kid" Jason sounded amused.

"That's good, I remember you being the psycho one" she growled back.

"Now don't you think that's going a bit far?"

"Not for the person who used to let things bleed. Didn't dad catch you torturing a shapeshifter?"

"I'm surprised you can even talk about dad, considering your little escapades with that angel of yours" Jason's voice became sharp.

Elise looked over her shoulder "I don't think _either_ of us have a right to talk about dad considering we both chose to become the thing he hated most of all. At least I became an angel for a good reason – you just did it for power."

"Of course" Jason tilted his head and looked at her like she was crazy "do you have any idea what we could do now? But I forgot you came back down here to pretend you are a human still, didn't you? Fun fact, we were _never_ human. We were always more powerful than those apes."

"Cut the crap Jason." Elise's voice was lazy, tired "you do this every day. You can tell Metatron or whoever's got you doing this that I won't join you."

Jason's lip curled in disgust "you would choose that angel you're fucking over me?"

"I'm not- we're not-!" Elise rolled her eyes "you know what, doesn't matter. _Yes_ I would choose Castiel over you Jason. Or Sam, or Dean, or you know what if it came to rescuing either you or Crowley from a burning car I'd go for Crowley!"

Jason held a hand over his chest like she had wounded him "it hurts to hear my little sister say such things!"

"You don't have a heart Jason."

His gaze became cold, hard, and he stood reaching through the holy fire – apparently oblivious to the way his arm erupted in blisters and burns – he grabbed her hair and dragged her close enough to the flames that her skin felt warm with a light burn "if that's so true then it doesn't matter you're my sister does it? That will make this much easier. Making Castiel comply with our demands will be simpler if we can just threaten you with death or injury."

"It won't work" she hissed through his grip on her matted hair, reaching out and clawing him. He let go with a hiss, but Elise ended up cradling her own wrist that erupted with blisters and painful burns from passing through the fire.

She looked up and saw she had caused bloody scratches on Jason's face. "You should be nicer. This works two ways after all – you comply, or I won't hesitate to go after your precious angel."

Elise stood, her bound wrists in front of her as she glared at Jason "don't you _dare_ touch him."

"Ooh, did I hit a nerve?"

Elise couldn't see it, but her icy eyes had begun to glow with grace and her voice became thundery as she snarled "he's _mine._ "

Lightening flashed outside, illuminating the warehouse, and thunder boomed over head as the wind whipped up howling and seemingly determined to blow the roof from the warehouse. Jason and Elise looked around for a second, their fight forgotten. Jason sighed, but looked amused "dammit, you just had to go and confirm it didn't you?"

"What?" she had no idea what he was talking about, giving him a bewildered wide eyed stare, before her eyes went back to the murky windows as lightening flashed again, and the panes began to rattle.

Jason didn't get to answer, nor did he look like he was going to in the first place. Instead he'd turned his green stare – looking thoroughly unimpressed – on the doors of the warehouse in time for them to be blown open, and entered a familiar figure with dark messy hair and the tan overcoat Elsie had missed so much.

She also noticed he still hadn't put his tie on the right way round.

"Cas!"

"Elise" his voice was a growl as he took in the scene – Elsie was quite bruised, burned in some places, and trapped in holy fire. The one who took her moved so he was between them.

"So you're Castiel, the one everyone's talking about?" Jason raised an eyebrow, looking him up and down, before looking over his shoulder at Elise "I thought he'd be taller."

"Bite me."

"That's rude" he turned back to Cas, who was advancing with angel blade in hand "so we must be like brothers-in-law since you're my little sisters soul mate?"

Castiel hesitated "sister?" he peered around Jason to look at Elise.

"You're no brother of mine."

" _Ouch_!" he smirked.

Castiel didn't waste any more time, seeing Elise's disownment as a go ahead to attack her brother. He surged forward, angel blade held up, only for it to land with a loud clang against the blade Jason had pulled from nowhere.

Elise watched tensely from inside the holy fire, not able to pass further than her respective three meter diameter. It was difficult to actually tell who was winning, considering neither of them had suffered damage but had a similar defensive-offensive strategy. She was so tense she bit her lip and drew blood.

It happened when Castiel had his back to her, and Jason saw an obvious opportunity. He deflected a blow form Cas's blade and kicked, catching him in the middle, and sending Castiel sprawling towards the holy fire. "Cas!" Elise dove forwards, pushing her hands through the uncrossable barrier the holy fire created so she could catch him before he burned. She screamed at the pain, her skin was blistering and sore even as she pushed Cas away from the fire and away from the pain.

"Elise!" he sounded shocked, but she couldn't open her eyes again. They stung from the burns and she fell to the floor pulling her arms back against her chest. Her side ended up as burned as her arms, until she rolled away from the flames back to the centre of the circle.

She missed the rest of the fight, circled in a foetal position on the floor fighting to remain conscious, but when she felt the fire die and arms close around her body she prayed it was Cas and not Jason who held her.

* * *

Elise woke with a startled gasp, her entire side burning like bad sunburn, looking around for danger. The last thing she remembered was holy fire, Castiel fighting the brother she was pretty sure no one would judge her for disowning, and _pain_.

"Hey!" Sam's voice was soft as he placed his hands on her shoulders, drawing her icy blue gaze to his warm brown one "El' you're safe. You're at the bunker."

She frowned and looked around the room. Okay, definably the bunker, definably Sam, definably Dean standing in the doorway eating what looked – and probably was – a key lime pie with way too much cream, but this wasn't her room.

She was about to question about that when she moved slightly, her side and arms erupting in pain. She whimpered, and moved the collar of the shirt she was wearing – she noticed it wasn't one of her shirts too – and looked down at the skin that had touched holy fire. It was no longer blistered, but red and burned all the same. She couldn't see her arms, since they were bound in white bandages.

She looked up at Sam, and found him offering her a small tube of burn cream. She looked at it, eyes finding large words claiming to have a 'numbing agent' and took it "thanks Sam!" she sighed in a kind of relief. "How long was I out?"

"Fifteen days" Dean said around a mouth full of pie.

"You've been watching me for fifteen days?" she tried to joke as she rubbed some cream into her pained skin "that's kinda creepy."

"Not all the time, I mean Cas was here sometimes…" Dean shrugged.

She realised the angel wasn't in the room them and frowned "where is Cas? Is he okay?"

"He's fine. Dunno where he's zapped off too, he just said to look after you. No doubt he'll be back eventually" Sam gave her a comforting smile.

"Okay" she sighed, and tried not to feel a bit down that she hadn't woken up with him around "do you know what happened?"

"Actually Cas was rather unforthcoming with answers" Dean sounded annoyed "he said it might be personal. Hoped you could shed some light on the subject. What the hell happened?"

"I didn't see much of the fight… but the one who took me, my brother. Jason. I didn't know he'd became an angel after they killed him…" she frowned at the wall, looking away from the boys "I mean… he was one of the few I met when I became… but he… he wasn't exactly stable as a human but with the power that comes with being an angel?" she shook her head "that's why I never told anyone he was… anyway he's got – or _had_ \- some kind of deal going on with Metatron thought he could get influence over Castiel with me."

There was silence.

And then Dean joked "and I thought our family was fucked up."

Elise noticed how Sam didn't look at him, and detected that something had happened between the pair again. She would figure that out later. Instead she looked around the fairly bare room (most bedrooms in the bunker where quite bare but at least Sam's had piles of books, Dean's had too many CD's and hers had a combination of both those things) and asked "where am I, this isn't my room?"

The brother's smirked suddenly "Cas's room. He was – uh – quite adamant that you stay here."

"Uh-huh" she raised an eyebrow "so who changed my clothes?"

"What you think Cas would let us touch you while you were hurt and unconscious?" Dean gave a barking laugh "consider yourself lucky he allowed Sam to get close enough to treat your cuts. I've seen grizzlies with less temper."

"I can imagine" she muttered with a slight grin "alright, I hope you guys don't mind but fifteen days is a long time to be bed-bound and I'm heading to the bathroom for a shower or something…"

A teasing voice called after her "need any help?"

"Cas isn't around, but I'll still kick your ass" she called back.

In the bathroom Elise saw the large bathtub and opted for a bath instead of a shower. And just to indulge herself a little, she added bubble bath. She might've added a bit too much and ended up with quite a pile of bubbles but that just added to the fun that was a bubble bath – and she felt like she'd need a distraction from the sting the water would create on her burns anyway. Speaking of her burns, she sat on the side of the tub and unwrapped the bandages from her arms, finding the skin there was just as red – if not a bit redder – but the blisters where gone from there too. She paused, looking at the burns, before holding a hand over the skin and trying to heal herself. Her hand glowed slightly, but soon dimmed and the light vanished into her palm again.

She never was good at healing. Still, she swore her arm was a few shades less red…

She turned off the water, checking the temperature of the bath, and pulled off the white button up shirt she had been dressed in. it was only when she was holding it that she realised the shirt was probably one of Cas's. She only knew of Dean and Sam owning two between them, and those shirts where usually reserved for FBI impersonation.

She felt a tender smile tug at her lips to think Cas had placed in one of his own shirts.

 **X**

She did, eventually, manage to heal herself. Mostly anyway. Her skin was still way warmer than it should have been – even for an angel – but it no longer stung to touch. It took a few days of her limited healing abilities and by the time she'd gotten to that stage of healing she'd been at the bunker roughly twenty days at least. She was getting impatient waiting for Castiel to return.

Not that Sam and Dean weren't making her welcome. She'd found out what it was making them quite tense still, she understood both sides of the story, and they were trying to hide their discomfort with one another for her sake which only made it more obvious to her. She didn't have the heart to tell them that however. Instead she did activities with them separately, such as reading with Sam in the library or 'training' with Dean that usually ended with him taking to advantage that she was quite ticklish way too far and she'd hit him for real. When they did hang out together, usually for meals or to watch a movie, it was in silence – or poking fun at the movies.

It was because of this morning's training fight with Dean that she walked into the kitchen that night and found him holding a pack of frozen peas to his jaw as he watched TV. He threw her a mock glare.

"If you tickle me I am not responsible for your injuries" she said in a sing song voice, going to the kitchen to get a drink.

Sam, researching at the table, snorted and smirked as he continued to tap away on his laptop.

"I am in physical pain – you giggled for ten minutes" Dean countered with a bitch face.

"I did warn you, twice."

"Bitch."

"Asshat."

"Where are you going?" Dean looked genuinely disappointed that she was leaving again.

"To bed. I'm tired" she paused in the hallway.

"And would you by any chance be staying in Cas's room again?" he fixed her with a smirk and a knowing look.

"Maybe" she lifted her chin in response.

"Alright, fine." Dean heaved a put-upon sigh and pointed a finger at her "just don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"What _wouldn't_ you do?" she muttered, but was halfway down the hall and didn't hear his reply.

When she was gone, there was a pause. Neither brother speaking until they were sure she wasn't going to come back. Then Sam, casting a glance at the corridor asked "do you think Cas will come back before she goes looking for him or…?"

Dean looked over the couch, peas still clutched to his face and clicked his tongue "dammit, I hope so. But I think he knows her well enough by now. He's lucky she was injured or I doubt she'd have waited five days as it is."

"Mm" was all Sam could reply with. Dean turned back around to watch the TV. Twenty minutes later however he'd grabbed for his gun after hearing Sam's startled yelp. He needn't have bothered with the gun – it was just Cas. Apparently he'd tapped Sam on the shoulder and startled him. "Bells" Sam glared at the angel "we are putting bells on you."

"I did not mean to startle you" Castiel sounded sincere, then again he always sounded sincere for scaring people like that but after so many years Dean couldn't believe that he always did it by accident. Especially when he did it during the most awkward moments.

"You look like crap Cas" Dean said in way of greeting.

"I am feeling quite tired" the angel explained, then tilted his head at Dean "I do not believe peas go on your face Dean, I believe they are a food source."

"They're cold, Cas, which helps stop bruising" Sam explained calmly "Elise kicked him in the face."

He perked up at that, but frowned a little "she's awake? Why did she kick you?"

"She was awake. I think she hit the sack about half an hour ago – she's probably asleep now" Sam said "and she kicked Dean because he tickled her when she got the upper hand on him during a boxing match."

"A boxing-"the angel really scowled now "you allowed her to spar while injured?"

"Don't be daft, she's been healing herself. Barely a mark on her. Anyway you think we _let_ Elise do anything?" Dean raised an eyebrow "now why don't you get a beer, pull up a chair and tell us where you've been?"

Castiel hesitated, clearly wanting to go and find Elise, but the expectant look from not just Dean but Sam also and he realised it was likely a good idea he kept them in the loop. So he got a beer – commenting that he couldn't actually taste it anymore, to which Dean replied it was cheap and didn't taste good anyway – and he explained to them what had happened while he was absent from the bunker. Obviously the biggest concern was the angels who wished for him to lead them again, which Castiel had no real desire to do, though he felt torn wanting to help them still. Dean and Sam tried to give him advice – after Dean's slight blow out pointing out all the bad things that had happened to Castiel for trying to help the other angels – but in the end all decided what he did would be his own choice.

The conversation ended with the three of them in a brooding silence, the TV being the only noise in the room.

 **X**

Normally when she slept it was a very light sleep… ever since losing her faithful companion Jasper, Elise had never really slept heavily. Unless of course she was injured. Which was why she lay there in the bed for a second, scowling and wondering what the hell had woke her. It could have been something as simple as a particularly loud howl of the wind outside, or a coyote's call, or usually it was the sound of Dean heading to the bunker's kitchen for a three-in-the-morning snack. And then she heard the softest sound from just behind her, her eyes widened further in the dark, she grabbed her blade from under the pillow and sat up in the dark.

Hands closed softly around both her wrists, stopping her from using her blade, and before she could make any noise of protest it was swallowed by a kiss from softy chapped lips she was beginning to know very well. Still, when he pulled away she couldn't help but ask with a tease "that had better be Castiel, because if not you better get out of here quick."

A growl as he released her wrists, lifting the blanket and getting into the bed beside her. "I think we have an understanding that no one else is allowed to kiss you" Cas's voice came from her left, and she smiled as she returned her blade back to the bedside.

"I best not make any deals with demons then" she replied, snuggling back down into the bed.

"I am the only one you make deals with too" he added, pulling her against him. He was a little surprised when his hand met bare skin, unable to resist a small roam and found she had only her bra and underpants on. He ended up settling his arm around her, resting his hand on her waist however and lying on his back in the dark as she snuggled close to him.

"So where have you been?" she yawned.

"Are you tired?"

"A little."

"Then we can discuss another time, you should rest."

"I will… thank you, by the way."

"What for?"

"For saving me. From Jason."

"I will always come for you" he said with complete honesty "I am sorry I left you there for so long."

"Its okay, Dean and Sam explained everything. I understand." She was burying her face against his neck, breathing in the scent that was purely Castiel.

"No, you don't. The urge to protect you…" he seemed unable to find words and sighed instead "it is a very primal instinct, stronger in angels that humans, to protect your mate. Almost as strong as the urge to nest, have fledglings, and such…"

"Wait, nest? Fledglings? As in kids?" she lifted her head to give him a funny look.

"Yes."

"Uh… Cas, remember I have very little knowledge of the way angels do things, but humans usually ask for the females opinion on those things…"

"I was not suggesting it" he sounded like he was laughing at her in the dark "not immediately. I believe we have enough trouble as it is?"

"Too right" she muttered, feeling her heart stop racing so hard "I'm awake now, damn."

Castiel rolled onto his side so he was closer to her now, pressing her against his chest, he stroked her hair and murmured to her "do you wish for me to tell you a story? I hear these help people to sleep."

"Usually helps small kids sleep Cas but… I think that might be more effective than counting sheep."

"You mean those metaphorical sheep you kept telling me about while I was human?"

"Yes" she smiled against his skin "please tell me a story Cas."

He sighed, pausing to think while he kept trailing a hand across the soft bare skin of her back. It was hard to keep his body from reacting, but he felt he managed quite well as he tried to think of things he had seen.

"Souls are created in heaven" he began eventually "when I was just a fledgling, my father was creating the last of all the souls his creation would even need. There are uncountable souls still in heaven, pure and untouched, just waiting to be born. They never seem to end, and are too pure for even an angel to touch. Being a fledgling I, and many other's created alongside me, where allowed to accompany the archangels and see these pure souls being created."

"But I thought you hadn't seen god?" Elise's voice sounded sleepy and gentle as her lips brushed his skin.

"I haven't" he agreed "but he is more than us. He can choose to be seen after all, and he did not wish to be seen by us so we did not see him. But we saw the souls being created. They are made of the purest whitest light, brighter I dare say than even the grace of an angel. It took days to craft just a single soul, and I was mesmerised. While the other fledglings would listen to the stories of the archangels I would continue to watch soul after soul as it was manufactured. Fascinated."

"You always _where_ an odd one, or so I'm told" she was smiling into his skin.

"Indeed" he made a humours agreeing noise "but I admit I have an ulterior motive to tell you this. Because for most of my life I was convinced I would never see anything more beautiful-" he pulled away from her, not able to really see in the dark but still found her lips in the dark and pressed a kiss to them "-until I found you."

In any other situation, Elise might've hit him and called him a sap or a flatterer. This time, just this once, she looked at him. She really looked at him, past the face of a man – which wasn't exactly an eye sore – to the celestial being underneath. His light was a bit dimmer, but it was no less beautiful than when she first laid eyes on his true form. She curled into him, yawning "you're pretty beautiful yourself Cas."

He chuckled, holding her, but he didn't reply. He just held her to his bare chest, resting himself, until he felt her breathing become steady and her heart rate drop just a fraction and he assumed she was asleep.

She was just awake enough to hear him as he murmured "I love you Elise, and I will always come for you."

* * *

Someone was poking rather insistently at Elise's cheek. She frowned, trying to bat away whatever it was so she could sleep some more, but it just came back. This time with a snigger. Her eyes fluttered open and found Dean sitting on the side of the bed looking amused as he poked her awake.

She lifted her head, nearly sitting up completely until she remembered her lack of clothing, and scowled at him. "What do you want Dean?"

"Sam and I are going on a hunt" he whispered. She frowned at that, until she realised there was a warm arm slung over her middle and a leg slung between hers. Ah, Cas must've been asleep still. "Just wanted to let you know, but I expect Cas is gonna take _good_ care of you" he winked.

Elise had enough grace left in her to push him off the bed. It was worth it when she saw his stunned look at the invisible force pushing him to the floor. He threw her a dirty look "do that again and I'll wake up you're little angel there."

"You wouldn't dare."

Dean sucked in a deep breath, Elise narrowed her eyes, and Sam – who must have been in the hallway – suddenly grabbed Dean and yanked him out of the room. He threw her an apologetic look, closing the bedroom door behind them. Elise sighed and she rolled over quite intending to sleep again, until she realised Castiel was looking at her through half closed eyes.

"Is he gone?" his voice rumbled thickly with sleep.

"Yeah. You where awake?"

"Yes. I find Dean's voice quite grating first thing in the morning."

"Cas, little secret, everyone finds everyone's voice grating in the morning."

"I do not find yours to be" he smiled softly, blinking awake, and closing the gap between them to press a slow kiss to her lips. Elise responded just as softly.

When they parted, she frowned at him. "I heard you last night."

"Telling you about the souls?" he frowned too.

"No. What you said when I fell asleep."

He tilted his head a little, thinking, and then a realising look came upon his face as he said "that I love you?"

"Yeah… do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Love me?"

"Of course."

She bit her lip "this isn't just because of the soul mate thing, is it?"

"Of course not" he began to press soft kisses over her forehead, nose, cheek and chin. Anywhere he could reach that was not her lips. "Being soul mates never _guaranteed_ that I might love you one day though it was incredibly likely. I love you for many reasons. Your kindness. Your loyalty. Your optimistic ability to laugh in the most dark situation, even if I am not always able to understand you're humour. I love you're laugh."

"Castiel." She stopped him before he could give anymore compliments. He stopped kissing her face, pulling away so he could look into her eyes.

"Yes?"

"Castiel, I love you too."

He leaned forwards and locked their lips together again, this time staying long enough for her to respond to his kiss, opening her lips for him. The moment their tongues entwined she moaned into his mouth. He responded by pulling her tighter to his body, nibbling at her lip before twirling his tongue around her's again. His demanding demeanour lit a fire in Elise, his sucked on her tongue a little and she felt heat pooling in her belly, and able to feel his hardening member on her belly. The very feel of that brought her more arousal and her hands crawled up his bare chest, digging her nails into his skin lightly and eliciting a groan from him.

His hands moved down to trace along her panty covered backside gently and his lips moved to kiss along her jaw and nip at the skin over her pounding pulse. "Where did you learn to kiss like that?" Elise couldn't help but gasp, knowing how unexperienced he was in this particular area.

He chuckled "Dean may have suggested I learn from more movies, I was quite surprised how many women seem to enjoy copulation with the pizza man."

Elise laughed – of course Dean would have something to do with this – before she paused Cas's shoulders until he was on his back with her straddled across him. He froze for a moment, the view of her, wearing just her black underwear straddled across his waist, something he wanted to try remember forever. He soon unfroze when she gave him a lust filled look and said huskily "I think I prefer my angel to the pizza man. You've never done this before?"

He shook his head.

"But you trust me?" she was moving off him, wriggling further down his body so he had to press his chin into his chest to see her. He nodded again, watching as she smiled before pressing a hand against the hard length tenting in his white and blue striped boxers. He groaned at the slight pressure, and she felt him get even harder against her palm. Spurred on by the noises he made, she hooked her fingers around his boxers and – after waiting for the small nod of permission he gave her – she pulled them down completely leaving him naked to her view.

She chewed her lip. For some reason she hadn't expected him to be so, well, much. She settled back down, gripping his member in one hand and watching his reaction as she rubbed him lightly. He bit his lip, still watching her. She smirked a little, wondering what his reaction would be when she… she licked gently up his length with the flat of her tongue and he groaned. "Elise…"

She took this as encouragement and after a few more experimental licks and rubs with her hand, she enveloped his length in her mouth and teased him with her tongue. His hand buried into her hair, holding onto her tightly, and exhaled heavily. Elise kept her eyes on him as she worked him, knowing she was the first to do this to him, to make an angel pull that kind of face and make those kinds of noises, was empowering and she didn't wish to miss a moment. She felt like all their dancing, even when she had disliked him, had been leading to this moment but funnily the tension didn't seem to follow. It was relaxed, natural.

Castiel felt a tension in him, and pulled her off him with a soft 'pop' as he sat up. She looked surprised but not unhappy as he dragged her to straddle his lap again and he pulled her back down into a heated kiss, nibbling her lip persistently. "Too many clothes" he growled at her when he moved away from her mouth, pressing kisses to her jaw before nibbling her ear.

Elise grinned, clicking her fingers and suddenly was as naked as he was. He hummed approvingly as his hands, which had been moving up and down her back so gently it gave her tremors, became firmer in their grip and found her breasts. He seemed experimental but firm about his grip, ghosting his thumbs over her nipples experimentally and licking the hollow of her throat when she arched her back further into his touch. He moaned against her skin when her hips rolled instinctively pressing her hot, wet, centre against his still hard length. Still he seemed to like that, so she did it again with a smirk on her face. This time his hips jerked back against her, and it was her turn to moan as he brushed against her sensitive clit.

" _Cas_ " she moaned directly into his ear – tugging on his lobe with her teeth.

One of his hands trailed south slowly enough that Elise felt like hitting him, until suddenly one of his fingers slid against her wet folds and surprised her. She gasped, and he paused. One look at her expression and he figured it was a good reaction, repeating it.

"So wet…" he murmured against the skin of her shoulder.

"You're fault" she growled back pressing kisses to his throat and shoulder.

He chuckled and just as suddenly as his fingers had touched her they were gone. She frowned, until the touch of his fingers was replaced with the slick feeling of him rubbing the thick head of his cock over her folds repeatedly, teasingly, never entering her. "Fuck…" she growled at him, digging her finger nails into his shoulders hard enough she was surprised she didn't draw blood. "Castiel if you don't stop teasing me…"

"Tell me what you want." He growled commandingly into her ear, pressing a kiss to the soft skin just behind her ear. "Tell me Elise."

"You" she growled right back "I want you Castiel. All of you."

At the same time he entered her, he sucked hard on the skin where her neck and shoulder joined, making Elise moan loudly from pain and pleasure. He didn't move for a few moments, seemingly frozen, and Elise wrapped her arms around him in a comforting embrace before she moved against him experimentally. He moaned, releasing her skin from his mouth and lifting his head. His hands ran up her body as she continued to move against him, fisting both his hands into her hair and pressing her forehead against his. He began to meet her movements, thrusting up to meet her.

It had been so long for her – a first time for him – she was not surprised when the heat began to coil in her belly so quickly and his gasps came faster, his movements more frantic. He shifted slightly, hitting her sweet spot, causing her to bite down as he had done on the flesh of his shoulder. If it hurt he didn't make a noises about it. That may also have been because he was too busy growling and moaning against her own shoulder.

Her orgasm slammed into her, surprising the both of them, but her response to claw desperately at his back and whisper "oh, _Castiel_ …" into his ear was what pushed him over the edge. A few more deep thrusts into her and they were both spent, gasping against each other's flesh.

After a moment, catching his breath, Cas moved her from his lap, only to drag her back down and curl around her nude form protectively brushing a hand up and down her hip and thigh. They said nothing, just lay there for a while. Eventually Castiel moved, pressing kisses to the back of her neck and spying the bruise he'd created when he bit her.

"I hope I did not hurt you…" he said, brushing a finger over the quickly bruising skin softly.

"I didn't feel it" she admitted a bit sheepishly, but now that she was tracing a finger over it herself she could feel it swelling. When she drew her hand back there was a faint trace of blood.

"Was that…?" Castiel's voice suddenly sounded insecure, and she found herself grabbing his hand and entwining her fingers with his.

"Good? It was great, Cas." She gave him a teasing but loving look over her shoulder "As first times go it could have gone much, much, worse."

"I am very glad" he smiled looking quite relived and rubbing his nose against her shoulder softly.

They lay like that for about an hour, just embraced in each other's arms and talking about nonsense that came to mind (examples being 'do penguins have knees?' to which he replied 'I have never check') until Elise yawned and began to show signs of drifting back to sleep. Castiel propped himself up on his elbow, pressing a kiss to her shoulder and giving her an apologetic look as he said "you know I can't stay…"

"I know" she lifted herself up to nuzzle against his throat affectionately. She was frankly surprised he'd lay there doing nothing for as long as he did.

"I will come back soon" he promised, sitting up completely.

"I know you will" she smiled "do you mind if I stay in your bed, just to rest from our – uh – morning exercise?"

"This is not _my_ room" he corrected "it is _our_ room, understand?" she nodded, he smiled, leaning down and capturing her lips in a soft kiss before he muttered "I love you" to her lips again. Then he was gone, him and the clothes he had left on the chair where gone too.

Elise snuggled back into the pillow, dragging the sheet up her naked body feeling much colder now Castiel's warmth was gone, but feeling safe surrounded by his scent. She stayed awake long enough to mumbled "I love you too…" and swore she heard her angel's soft laugh.


End file.
